-M.I.A has created a fusion of various rhythms from different parts of the world into a distinct form of dance music.
-Her music has a raw energy derived from its DIY production process and the influence of rebellious American hip-hop.
-M.I.A boldly describes the reality faced by the slum inhabitants of the world, constantly referring to radical politics that is absent from most music today.
-While filming a tour documentary with British alternative band Elastica, she was introduced to the Roland MC-505 Groovebox (a programmable drum machine). She then began making her own tracks with this, a 4-track tape and a microphone (DIY production process).
-Her debut album Arular (2005) became popular via the internet and underground DJ's.
-Arular uses Jamaican dancehall and other rhythms from third world musical styles as the basis for most of its beats.
-Her lyrical style is 'a sort of rapping that draws elements from third world musical styles and incorporates pitch inflection without quite being singing.'
-The DIY ethic and raw energy that is said to be central to punk rock and hip hop has turned into its complete opposite due to its lack of creativity and detachment from social reality. Arular stands out from these due to the the song's intensity and brashness on certain 'taboo' topics.
-The subjects of the lyrics on Arular reflect the everyday lives of those confined to the slum's and promotes political struggles in some of the world's most oppressed countries and nations.
-the song 'Pull Up The People' contains a basic Jamaican dancehall beat (using an electronic bass and snare drum) and adds layers of drums and synthesisers. The 'low pitched and slightly distorted synthesiser bass drone plays mostly eighth notes' alongside this the occasional high pitches and 'random accents' give the song its jagged and raw edge.
-M.I.A uses a certain pitch inflection which serves to make the vocals sound like a drum beat. And at other times it also sounds like it is mimicking a synthesiser and drum machine sounds.
-'Pull Up The People' is said to be a 'genuine dance song that uses typical lyric ideas from hip hop to convey a radically different message' e.g. "I've got the bombs to make you blow, I got the beats to make it bang bang bang."
-'Sunshowers' samples the song Sunshowers by Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band but drastically transforms and challenges the original material to create a whole new 'texture'. The drum and bass that is used in this song to make the dancehall style rhythm has a distorted sound that resembles the rattling bass heard from car 'trunk' speakers.
-The music video for Sunshowers was released and banned from MTV for its political content e.g. "like PLO I don't surrendo" and other sexual references. Also, the description and identification with warfare participants in lines such as "see it through like protocol, which is why we blow it up 'fore we go" got a lot of attention from the media as it threw accusations of supporting terrorism from governments and nations.
-the song 'Bingo' adds a steel drum sound to the dance style beat. The gasping and breathing sounds give the song a nervous energy, whilst the synthesiser resembles distorted guitars.
-Arulars album art is bright, bold, uses stencil-graffiti style techniques and depicts bombs, guns, masked guerilla fighters and military planes and helicopters, plus tigers as a symbol of the Tamil nation liberation struggles.
-As well as the support for third world national liberation struggles, the lyrics on Arular are laced wth casual references to the 'normal life' for oppressed people around the world e.g. "Everyday thinking 'bout how me get through, everything i own is on I.O.U."- Pull Up The People and "He got... Reebok classics on his feet, at a factory he does Nike, and the he helps the family"- Sunshowers.
-This all contrasts the 'fantasy world' of most current rap artists and rock and pop music.
-The album from M.I.A is a break from the mainstream that presents the social reality of the world's oppressed and also embraces the revolutionary struggles in the 1960s that is now considered as a 'thing of the past'.
-M.I.A's DIY approach to making her debut album Arular successfully conveys the raw energy that displays a musical intuition for sampling, lyrical flow, rhythm, musical textures and its lack f fear for being 'abrasive' the proof for this is said to be in how 'danceable' her music is.
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