No 'Round the Corner

“I put people on the map who have never seen a map” – M.I.A. ’20 Dollars’

Sri Lankan-born rapper Maya Arulpragasam, or simply M.I.A., is castigated by some for her eclectic approach to music, which embodies the odd dichotomy of political/fashion statement, but generally it’s A-OK with me. With the recent release of her second album Kala, M.I.A. has continued to ooze Third World appeal while aggressively – albeit sometimes vaguely – addressing issues of racism and inequality. And she can speak, being the daughter of a Tamil activist-turned militant!

It’s all very post-colonial – taking in grime, hip-hop, dance-hall, baile funk, and bad Bollywood to name but a few genres – and, unsurprisingly, polarising. Kala was apparently borne from a world-trip, from which M.I.A. and producer Switch (and a few more names, admittedly) were basically able to appropriate the much-maligned ‘World Music’ label into something rather cool. One track on the album called ‘Mango Pickle Down River’ will resonate particularly with Australian listeners. Didgeridoos? Check. Cute anecdotal rapping from Aboriginal kids? Check. Crackly Keith from Wilcannia Street? No, it couldn’t be?!

But, yes. ‘Mango Pickle Down River’ is in fact a reworking of the Wilcannia Mob’s JJJ-loved ‘Down River’ of a few years ago. And by reworking I mean it’s basically the same song, as originally produced by Aussie Morganics, with some non-sensical M.I.A. vocals thrown into the mix. It’s all rather strange.

Now, as far as I know Morganics passed the track on to M.I.A. and her people (most likely mega-producer Diplo, who had a big hand in her previous album Arular and is involved with the Heaps Decent initiative to assist indigenous and underprivileged Australian musicians). I’m not one to point the finger but, reading overseas reviews, it doesn’t seem as though Morganics and the Wilcannia Mob (a number of whom are now behind bars, I’m told) have been appropriately credited. I could be off the mark but for an artist who has enjoyed serious exposure through affiliation with Third World struggle, it would be shameful if any exploitation has occurred. M.I.A. has had this to say in the past:

“It’s really weird when I did the Big Day Out Tour, in January (2006), we ended up meeting some aboriginal kids in Adelaide, so we took them to my show…and we made them watch The Stooges. I hung out with them all-day long. To me, there’s something about them that reminded me of Sri Lankan people…it was the first time I realised how difficult it is for Aboriginal people in Australia. Even to get them into the Big Day Out after party, me and my brother practically had to get into a fight with people to get them in…just the amount of segregation between black and white Australia is really crazy. I met this guy called Morganics, who’s this white guy (hip-hop producer) who’s a social worker, and he originally made that track as a social work project that he set up in the bushes with these kids who come from a really hard part of Australia. I think two of boys are in now in a juvenile detention centre. It’s really difficult for certain groups in Australia…because I got to see them first hand, this sounded like the most perfect thing I’d ever heard and I really wanted to put it on the map.”
[From Fact Magazine]

Now, hip-hop is all about appropriation – just witness Kanye West’s decrepit take on Daft Punk’s ‘Harder Better Faster Stronger’ – but it’s different when the subject material is unknown and, quite frankly, there for the taking. Just to clarify, I don’t think M.I.A. would blindly rip-off artists in such a way. I am, however, amazed that of all the international reviews I have read of Kala that none have acknowledged the fact that the song already existed.

It’s all very post-modern to me. In a way it seems as though time and space has shrunk, and what we have now is some sort of global meta-culture. Perhaps M.I.A. is a symbol of these changes. The very next song on Kala quotes the Pixies and samples New Order, so she definitely knows where her bread is buttered (indie-nerds like me FYI!)

Well, she’s touring again soon and I’ll be attending – I wonder if there’s any chance of an onstage reunion?

[M.I.A.'s Kala is out now on XL/Remote Control]