M.I.A. is pissed. The Sri-Lankan emcee/singer is apparently very unhappy with a profile of her that is set to run in this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. So much so, she’s posted the phone number of the story’s author Lynn Hirschberg’s on her twitter as ‘revenge.’
(Credit: Ryan McGinley for the New York Times)
The profile takes a look at M.I.A.’s politics, which have always been a source of controversy, and questions whether her political stances are just posturing. This isn’t the first time M.I.A. has taken issue with the New York Times. Last year, she took to twitter to rant about their coverage of her native Sri Lanka as a ‘travel destination’ while ignoring the fact that the country is war-torn and poverty-stricken. M.I.A. is never one to shy away from controversy, so this surely won’t be the last we’ve heard of this issue. M.I.A is getting ready to release her new album ///Y/ on July 13, with the Hype Williams-directed video for her latest single ‘XXXO’ set to drop any day now.
NEXT PAGE: READ AN EXCERPT OF THE ARTICLE THAT MADE M.I.A. SO ANGRY.
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Yet while Madonna stuck to sex and the Catholic church for her headlines, Maya is compelled by a violent separatist movement and the politics of resistance. Her allegiances have fueled her music and her rhetoric. In January 2009, while the civil war in Sri Lanka was raging, Maya repeatedly referred to the situation as a “genocide.” “I wasn’t trying to be like Bono,” Maya told me. “He’s not from Africa — I’m from there. I’m tired of pop stars who say, ‘Give peace a chance.’ I’d rather say, ‘Give war a chance.’ The whole point of going to the Grammys was to say, ‘Hey, 50,000 people are gonna die next month, and here’s your opportunity to help.’ And no one did.”
Her rhetoric rankles Sri Lankan experts and human rights organizations, who are engaged in the difficult task of helping to forge a viable model for national unity after decades of bitter fighting. “Maya is a talented artist,” Kadirgamar told me, echoing the sentiments of others, “but she only made the situation worse. What happened in Sri Lanka was not a genocide. To not be honest about that or the Tigers does more damage than good. When Maya does a polarizing interview, it doesn’t help the cause of justice.”
Unity holds no allure for Maya — she thrives on conflict, real or imagined. “I kind of want to be an outsider,” she said, eating a truffle-flavored French fry. “I don’t want to make the same music, sing about the same stuff, talk about the same things. If that makes me a terrorist, then I’m a terrorist.”
Read the rest of the article here.
