World-dance Phenom M.I.A. Lets Her Mom’s Influence Surface

In 2005, London-based dance-fusion singer M.I.A. (real name: Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam) made a name for herself with her debut album, Arular… by using her father’s name. While daddy Arul “Arular” Pragasam had established fame or notoriety in Sri Lanka, depending on the perspective, fighting for the Tamil minority in that country’s civil war, Ms. Arulpragasam has frequently asserted that all he ever gave her was a name, leading her to take it for her album—much to his chagrin. But as she gained fame—and a coveted Mercury Prize nomination—for the way her politically and domestically aware lyrics danced about her musical polyglot of Detroit-inspired dance, reggae, baile funk, hip-hop and, of course, Sri Lankan rhythms on Arular, it was truly her mother to whom she owed the greatest debt.

For her follow-up, Kala (XL-Interscope), however, she rights that wrong by titling this one after her mum. Accordingly, she says this album reflects more feminine ideals, which also surface in her music. The differences are anything but subtle, too. Contrasting Arular’s consistent guerilla assault of four-on-the-floor exotic beats and scratches, no one song on Kala sounds like another. During the duration of an LP, M.I.A. flirts with bouncy hip-hop (”Boyz”), sweet-talks disco (”Jimmy”), catcalls Latin grime (”XR2″) and wolf-whistles up some thug-rock crossover cuts (”Paper Planes”), asserting her strength as a woman. Consistently rejected by the United States visa bureau while recording the album, she returned to India for basic tracks before embarking to other parts of the world for a different perspective. In the end, the album reflects her independence as a woman, at times sounding visceral, sexy or frightening, usually all within seconds of one another. Like her mother, she’s doing it on her own, and that says everything. On a phone call from her label’s English office, M.I.A. explains.

How did your mother, who raised you as a single parent and who you named this album after, influence you most?

When I was thinking of beginning to start this album, I’d be on the bus and I’d see all these ladies come out of work and it’d be like 8 p.m., 9 p.m., just coming out of their office. London can be really gray, and I was like, “Wow, these women, they have to, like you say in America, be a ‘baby mama.’” It’s really difficult: You go to work. You come home. You look after your kids. You’re never going to get the support from the guy, and guys are not taught to be responsible because… what we encourage is for everyone to have freedom, to have whoever they want and to shag whoever they want and to never grow up and never be responsible… And I was just thinking, “Wow, how do you have happiness?” You don’t get another boyfriend. You just have your life and are dedicated to your kids. And especially to do that in England, or anywhere in the world, is really hard because you can’t be a good mother because you’re out working all the time. So, I was thinking about my mom because of that, and I wondered if I would ever be in that situation and what if it had been different and stuff. And I think thinking things like that is what motivates me to, I don’t know, keep going. Just find escapism through my work. It scares me.

Do you feel those emotions came through on the album?

Yeah, I think I was going through loads of personal change. I found it really hard. When I was making this album, it probably was the hardest time for me because… this is a turning point for me. And, as a woman, those things are like 10 times harder to choose and do and achieve. And it’s not like I’m a feminist or anything like that, but… people think I might be ambitious, but I think my motivation comes from not wanting to end up in the same situation as my mom. I can prolong settling down and having children until I know I can put a roof over someone’s head and be able to take care of a child and be able to put food on the table. If you’re creative and you’re an artist, you always have to battle yourself with being an artist versus a woman—a mother—and settling down and throwing away your life. And men don’t have to deal with that kind of s*it.

Has this become more clear to you as you’ve gotten older?

No, I think I’m thinking about it more because I just want [my art] to come from a good place and I want it to be positive. And that’s the best you can do… How I choose to do it is by creating questions or whatever and confusing people into talking about stuff. I feel like I’m putting myself on my own, especially if your work is political and it has a certain responsibility to it. It was more like a philosophical thing, like how do I want to grow into a woman? And I want to be dignified about stuff. I know how far being successful or being famous and stuff can take you, and I just needed to get my motivations right. I don’t think I would get the same happiness as someone like Lindsay Lohan out of just being famous, you know?

This entry was posted by RNYK on Thursday, October 11th, 2007 at 11:33 am