M.I.A. is on the April 7 cover of the NME (to be fair, there are nine other covers this week) as part of their special “The State Of Music Today” issue. Inside she discusses politics in music, what music’ll look like in ten years, and dresses down Coldplay and Lady Gaga. The kids at Oh No They Didn’t transcribed the piece, where she makes no less than three Gaga mentions, including this quotable: “None of her music’s reflective of how weird she wants to be or thinks she is. She models herself on Grace Jones and Madonna, but the music sounds like 20-year-old Ibiza music, you know?” More of M.I.A.’s disses below.
On record labels (and Lady Gaga):
Lady Gaga plugs 15 things in her new video. Dude, she even plugs a burger! That’s probably how they’re making money right now — buying up the burger joint, putting the burger in a music video and making loads of burger money.
On the importance of visuals in music (and Lady Gaga):
… it’s not like “Haus of Gaga” (laughs). Me blindfolded with naked men feeding me apples and shit.
On pop star mythology (and Lady Gaga):
… People say we’re similar, that we both mix all these things in the pot and spit them out differently, but she spits it out exactly the same! None of her music’s reflective of how weird she wants to be or thinks she is. She models herself on Grace Jones and Madonna, but the music sounds like 20-year-old Ibiza music, you know? She’s not progressive, but she’s a good mimic. She sounds more like me than I fucking do!
She’s got a point on that last one. Pitchfork’s Ryan Dombal noticed it on this Wale track featuring Lady Gaga and her best M.I.A. impression:
She has more positive words for Sleigh Bells’s Alexis Krauss (of course):
Which artists are you excited about in 2010?
The new Sleigh Bells album epitomizes how kids are feeling in America – so much energy, but nothing to do with it. Everyone wants you to be an apathetic consumer over there, so it’s cool to have some weird discomfort going on. I like that Alexis [Krauss, vocalist] used to be a nice girl in a pop band that never made it. She followed every step an American child usually follows – singing in the mirror, wanting to be Britney Spears, etc. – so for her to arrive at this noisy place is interesting.
I guess you could make a point about M.I.A. living in glass mansions here. But in both the Spin article (linked above) and this NME interview, she’s been open to discussing her relationship with her label, her flirtations with selling-out (her words), and marrying into a billionaire family, pointing out, for example, that money from her $100,000 MTV private party gig went to building a school in Africa.
[Photo by Amrit Singh]
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MIA has recognized one of the ways to get attention – “assess” Gaga. How much attention would her interview have received if not for her Gaga bashing? Nice she gave money to build a school. Gaga’s no slouch in the giving department. She has given over $500,000 to Haiti relief.
“None of her music’s reflective of how weird she wants to be or thinks she is,” completely sums up my feelings on Lady Gaga. I admit I probably would enjoy all the outrageous fashion and image more if her own artistic output actually reflected any of what she’s supposed to represent, but her music is just so overwhelmingly bland to me.
I agree with you completely. Lady Gaga has stepped outside of the box with her preformances and tried to say something simply more than just dance and sing on a stage, but that’s as far as it goes. And all the product placement in ‘telephone’ was that necessary? She was so close to becoming more than a pop star until she did that. chuckjones above mentions how MIA isn’t only getting the attention because she mentions Gaga. If Gaga is so influencial and so powerful why is she busting out all this bogus product placement in her “art”? MIA sings about politics, she eats, sleeps and breathes world issues, she’s not just doing an artistic performance at an awards show.
Seems slightly bitter, but she’s right about her image/music not really going together. Also kind of glad someone finally called Gaga out on all the product placement in that “Telephone” video. It was cheap.
Oh please. People have been talking about the product placement in the video since it originally aired.
http://blog.ajchristian.org/2010/03/15/counting-the-brands-product-placement-in-lady-gagas-telephone/
http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=121&p=8144&more=1&c=1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/mar/15/lady-gaga-telephone-product-placement
Please, who cares, she has all that Seagrams $$$. Poseur. She should just do her cover of “Buffalo Stance” and get it over with.
She’s kind of right, in a way, but because of the circumstance I think it comes across as bitchy and overly bitter. I think it’s cheap to bash the competition in a public forum. Just write better songs.
I agree completely. What MIA is saying might be valid or “true”, but saying it in print makes you look like the asshole.
especially because it seems to come out of nowhere…
I guess I lost the Pepsi Challenge… I seriously thought that M.I.A. was featured on Chillin until just now. I will admit I was a little high when I was listening to Wale’s songs but WTF!?! He even makes a reference to M.I.A. in the song. I will infer that the hook was first offered to M.I.A. and she turned it down. So, after Santigold, Rhianna, and Susan Boyle also turned it down, Wale bit the bullet and went to Lady Gaga. Fail (mostly on my part)!!!
Haha I know…. Part of me thinks Wale originally wanted MIA but couldn’t get her.
Wale: Hey Gaga…. Um, could you sound like MIA for this track?
The thing is, it’s not like MIA is some avant garde revolutionary. “Paper Planes” is about as dial it in, as it gets.
Agreed. When a song that was heavily based upon a Clash sample, that not too many people really ever heard until it was featured in trailers for a Seth Rogen film, is the main reason you broke into the mainstream, you really shouldn’t have too much shit to say about anyone else. Especially someone like Lady Gaga.
Gwen Stefani was aping Reggae dance-hall in No Doubt and Marilyn Manson was wearing Army officer hats years and years before anyone ever heard of this bitch. They weren’t the first to do it, and won’t be the last.
Are you guys really basing your entire analysis of an artist as a whole off of a single song? Just about anything Diplo makes can make it into the mainstream (he’s a world class DJ for christ’s sake), especially if say…it happens to get used on a mainstream movie trailer 6 months after the track is released. Though the really baffling thing is why would the fact that Paper Planes is MIA’s only real mainstream success have anything at all to do with her artistic merit? Her albums aren’t full of Paper Planes knockoffs that just haven’t had their chance to hit the mainstream yet. It sounds like she really had fun during the process of making her first album and tried to turn the dial to eleven on both concept and progressive structures on her second. Whether you like her music or not, you can’t deny the fact that she’s a genuine artist. I’m not a fan of Gaga’s music, but I still give her the credit of having natural talent.
I’m on the same page with you with regards to MIA being an artist. It’s just that she comes off as more than a little hypocritical and jealous when she starts spouting off about Lady GaGa.
It’s always bothered me when certain artists make it a point to bash similar artists, particularly when their artistic output is not so comprehensive. It’s not that they don’t have a right to say what they feel, it just that it usually always comes of as pettiness. It’s not as if MIA is on the same level as a Morrissey or a Ryan Adams, two critically-acclaimed artists whose far-reaching influence and back catalogues actually give a bit of credibility and merit to any negative comments they might make toward other artists, which both have been known to do.
“It’s always bothered me when certain artists make it a point to bash similar artists…”
It also particularly sucks when you (as a fan) genuinely enjoy both artists.
to my ears, both women merely make boring and mildly irritating club music. but MIA surely wins in the artistic merit category – at least she’s doing something that comes off as having real intention, rather than basing an entire career from an image of meaninglessly selected, random bullshit. feel sorry for the poor saps who were duped into thinking she’s “artsy.”
and by she i mean gaga, of course.
This is actually the first time I think MIA has said anything that actually makes sense. (I am I doing this right?)
First of all, don’t hate on that burger money. Especially if you’re songs are on multiple movie trailers.
Something bothers me about MIA. I think it’s the overwhelming sense of poseurness. I’m from from the general region she’s from (not that it matters but I’ll say it so whatever) and there’s something off about her when she talks about it. Anyone remember her interview with Bill Maher? She seemed completely ignorant. I think it’s the faux-revolutionary attitude. Like her lame Seagram’s family got there money from wild moonshing parties excuse. Not that there’s anything wrong with marrying into that family but stop acting like you just married into the Guevara family.
20 years ago it was 1990, when electronic music was at the height of its creativity and innovation. Back when hardcore still could never die, when there was only one kind of house and everyone liked it, when Jamaicans were still making jungle and trance was actually /good/. If you compare the music of those days with simplistics build-breakdown-anthem routine that has affected nearly all of pop and dance music, I’d prefer being lumped in with the classics.
Case in point: Tiesto vs. Frankie Bones. One is an egotistical showman who barely knows how to follow a set list, and the other invented the American rave scene and coined the term “PLUR”. MIA, guess which one you’ve just associated yourself with?
Making music that sounds like 20 years ago is not the same as making music with the same attitude and creativity as a scene from 20 years ago. Regardless of what Gaga’s music sounds like, it is still structurally formulaic.
I’m not clear why image has to match music perfectly. It’s an interesting comment from MIA, but that doesn’t mean she’s getting at some cardinal rule of musicianship. Even if Gaga’s music lags behind a bit, it’s safe to say that her public image has pushed the envelope in certain respects.
And this commentary about Alexis Krauss following the American dream, doing what every little American girl wants to do and failing. “Everyone wants you to be an apathetic consumer over there.” Since when did MIA have her finger on the pulse of every American teenager? If her qualms with globalization are getting at something (and they are), then the apathetic consumer part applies increasingly to every country.
Tonight I’m gonna see of Montreal live, how much you wanna bet they outperform Lady Gaga?
Yawn….MIA sounds jealous. And how do MIA and Lady Gaga sound anything alike?
Watch that Wale clip. I’m glad Stereogum put it up because it’s actually the first thing I ever saw Lady Gaga in. From that, my assessment was that she was an MIA wannabe selling purses (seriously, this video is like a commercial for her salmon clutch). I think MIA has a point about Gaga not being quite as subversive as people give her credit for, but perhaps MIA isn’t the best person to make that point. That said, I like MIA better. Her music is more interesting and less repetitive.
really lost a bit of respect for MIA after reading that, Lady Gaga is one of the most interesting people in music at the minute and definitely a good role model for women, all those little asides just come across as jealous….I’m not saying that just because they’re both women they should pretend to like each other’s music but like it does reinforce the whole girls are bitchy stereotype.like why did she feel she had to comment if lady gaga’s no big deal?
MIA’s point was simply that while Gaga is considered one of the most interesting people in music, the actual music she puts out is a far cry from interesting. Some of us like interesting music and have no interest in following the artists’ lives and publicity stunts. Gaga seems to pander to the opposite by making boring music that her fans can sing along to while they read tabloids about the latest shocking thing she did *that has nothing to do with music.* Its a perfect match for that crowd. There’s no need for either side to feel bitter as they are clearly on different missions. My guess is that it was Gaga’s overt copping of MIA’s sound that prompted Maya to publicly say something about Gaga.
Personally, I don’t find Gaga’s music all that “boring” . Sure, it’s pop music and does follow that formula…but as someone who can dig the hits in the club but has never really been into pop artists, it’s nice to have a pop star I can finally get behind, someone I respect and admire as I person.
Wait. Gaga is a good role model for women?
I’d say so…and the gay community.
i too would love to know.
i am a big MIA fan, and a fan of some Gaga singles.
its kinda lame picking on Gaga. she is by no means revolutionary but does anyone remember Jessica Simpson? Willa Ford? Mandy Moore? all this shitty girl pop from the start of the decade. Lady Gaga far surpasses even Britney, and this being as ugly as she is. the music itself is not anything new, but as of late Gaga’s lyrical content is a cut above pop music lyrics in general.
MIA is right, Gaga is by no means as wierd as she thinks she is, but shes pulling an Andy Warhol, exploiting pop music, and i wouldnt be surprised if this was all the groundwork for what she really wants to do. All pop stars have to make the label’s album, maybe even twice, before they can truly make their own statements. and lets not forget that Gaga can sing, and would out sing MIA anyday.
and this whole product placement thing….selling out bla bla. this dumb attitude that attatching yourself or your work to any product is selling out. lets remember the golden days of tv and how commercials work. it would be one person, talking into the camera, telling your they endorse a product. its the same thing with commercials today. so, for example, im MIA, and i drink coke, and genuinely enjoy coke, so I appear or my music appears in a coke commercial. no selling out has occured becuse nothing dishonest has occured. selling out is compromising your morals,or standards for money.
“Gaga’s lyrical content”:
Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh
Stop telephonin’ me!
Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh
I’m busy!
Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh
Stop telephonin’ me!
Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh
Re: Gaga’s Lyrical Content
Work your blond (Jean) Benet Ramsey
We’ll haunt like Liberace
Find the freedom in the music
Find your Jesus
Find your Kubrick
(hater)
I love the both of them. While Lady Gaga may have copied some of M.I.A’s stuff, it’s not like M.I.A can suddenly get pissed off at somebody sampling her music if that’s how she became famous. Secondly, the wasy I see Lady Gaga is that she has totally adopted this persona where she can explore our pop culture’s obsession with sex, money, fame, etc (you get the idea). I’m not sure if in doing that she’s intentionally trying to be “weird,” I think of it as she is really pushing boundaries about women and sexuality. It seems to be more about a performance. No one can possible say Lady Gaga is not ridiculously ambitious. As for M.I.A, she clearly is going for the political, but she loves the idea of being a pop star. When you say something as ridiculous as “She’s just trying to do me” and “She sounds more like me than I do,” you’re clearly showing your jealousy towards someone who is in a position that you think you should be in. Both of them are ambitious, dominant female figures, but apparently M.I.A thinks only one person can be on top. That’s just silly.
explore/exploit
please, she’s not pushing any boundaries. crazy outfits and outlandish stunts does not equal pushing boundaries.
get some perspective people. god i can only hope some of the Gaga defenders here are just hitting puberty.
I love MIA but…
HATER!
Hater or not, she’s right.
Lady Gimmick certainly pretends to be an artist.
Also, where is this burger plug in the Telephone video she speaks of?
My 2cents. The article is clearly a flame bait traffic piece (not negative crit here, just calling it for what it is).
I’m sure that MIA has always had controversial things to say about many things.
Her rage is likely towards against many things not just gaga in particular.
this ain’t MIA hating on gaga. just MIA hating.