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Published on 5/8/08
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M.I.A. has a message for all the Internet scolds who claimed that the riot of styles on her 2005 debut, Arular, constituted a case of cultural opportunism: “Credentials are boring.” That announcement comes only a few minutes into Kala, the young Sri Lankan–born singer-rapper and producer’s new album, but its meaning reverberates throughout these 12 tracks. A much wilder ride than Arular, Kala seems as if it were designed to piss off prudes unwilling to tolerate M.I.A.’s musical miscegenation as pop.
A good deal of Kala’s electrifying variety no doubt derives from its method of manufacture. Hamstrung by visa issues and unable to get to Los Angeles (where she’d reportedly planned on making a record with Timbaland), M.I.A. instead spent much of last year circling the globe in search of far-out sounds. She found loads: “Bird Flu” throbs with hectic Indian polyrhythms; “Jimmy” is a faithful cover of an early-’80s Bollywood tune; “Mango Pickle Down River” features guest verses from the Wilcannia Mob, a group of young aboriginal MCs. In “$20,” a heady bit of shoegaze-crunk, the singer boasts, “I put people on the map that never seen a map.”
Yet the aggressive ingenuity with which M.I.A. and her principal collaborator, U.K. producer Dave Taylor (a.k.a. Switch), paste together these disparate sounds makes it clear she’s more interested in juxtaposition than excavation. In a rapidly shrinking world whose chasms of understanding keep widening, M.I.A.’s determined to build bridges.
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