M.I.A. shared the explosive single “Go Off” from her upcoming album, AIM. This album, according to M.I.A., is “the cleanest album I have.” AIM will be her first album in three years and is set for a September 9 release. After much anticipation, the details of the album were finally released on Thursday.
The politically charged electro-pop rapper vented her frustrations about the status of the project, saying a “big American artist” has taken from her work. The copycat nearly forced M.I.A. to leak the album, but ultimately, she decided against it. It is still uncertain which popular American artist M.I.A. was referring to in her tweets.
“I hate it when big American artists take from me and my work and refugee sentiments from my work before it’s released.”
The video was directed by the Sri Lankan MC herself. In the video, hundreds of underground explosions surface to match the incredibly powerful beat produced by Skrillex and Blaqstarr. M.I.A. explains the two artists she collaborated with are from two different worlds, but that was the point of the album AIM , “keeping people together”, she tells BBC host Annie Mac. M.I.A. also explains she wanted to make a music video with “no human beings in it.” Having over 1,000 extras in the music video, “Borders” was a difficult task to handle.
M.I.A. says she was tempted to leak the record “especially when I get told to ‘Fight ur own battle.’” The singer posted a statement written by author Sinthujan Varatharajah on her website . Varatharajah writes about the plight of refugees around the globe. He also wrote an essay on the politics of M.I.A.’s “Borders” video.
“Survivors of war, conflict and genocide live on as IDPs [internally displaced persons] and refugees, dispersed across their homelands and the globe. They embody the violence that has displaced them into the unknown, into uncertainty and into camps and council estates,” Varatharajah wrote.
“Survivors crossed countless continents, countries and borders, leaving behind their homes, lives and dead: only to be rendered invisible, silent and forgotten in exile; only to be told that their bodies might have travelled but their stories have not.”
According to The Chicago Tribune , during a Periscope session, the British-born, Sri Lankan-bred artist says she wakes up every morning wanting to leak her own album , but needs the support of her record label, Interscope.
“If I carry on making music, then I would do that, but I also want to find an album where I can actually make my label work for me.”
Over the past few months M.I.A. has released a handful of songs including “MIA OLA” and “Foreign Friend”, that dealt with issues of immigration, and “Rewear It” as part of a clothes recycling campaign with H&M.
She also released “Poc That Still a Ryda,” a track that mixed together numerous songs from the album. Her label promptly removed these tracks from the internet.
Is M.I.A. Retiring After This Album?
In an interview with Annie Mac by BBC Radio 1, M.I.A. hinted at the possibility of retiring while promoting her new song.
“It’s my last record, so I just want it to be happy–there’s no complaints on it. There’s another side to me completely, I dunno if people know that.”
Mac dives into the statement, “Is it really your last record?” M.I.A. says, “Yeah, I think so,” explaining that she wants to “do other stuff” and “take some time out.”
“I’m sure I’ll put music out and I’ll make music but–as an album, it just kind of came together. I started making it after “Borders” and it seemed to grow itself very quickly and I had to just go with it.”
What do you think of M.I.A.’s “Go Off” music video? Are you looking forward to M.I.A.’s new album, AIM ? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[Photos by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images]