M.I.A. was on Letterman last night to perform “Born Free.” She brought along a lot of friends — nine lookalikes dressed in sunglasses and outfits to match her own. It was still easy to tell who she was. But it was a clever way to bring up some of the things people have implied — that’s she’s inauthentic, an impostor, a fake, etc., without judging or answering. Just acknowledging. Suicide’s Martin Rev played with M.I.A. to do the song’s sample live, which was a nice co-sign. I’m not sure Letterman could — he was fairly speechless after the noisy performance, though he did say, “Seriously, happy Halloween.”
Unfortunately she doesn’t top Eminem’s impostor count:
/\/\/\Y/\ is out now.
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%s1 / %s2
awesome
agreed.
Clones are cool I guess. The song sucks though. Fun gimmick, but that’s really all it is.
Yeah, on the album her tone deaf singing is at least buried by the awesome sample, bringing it front and center like this live is just awful. Also if she had placed herself in the back of the clones or just didn’t have a spotlight clearly revealing herself maybe her message would have worked, but as it stands its just M.I.A. using people as ego-enhancing stage props.
Agreed. I actually really like the track, but it definitely doesn’t translate well live. Pretty cool that Martin Rev is there though.
At least Alan Vega’s contributions to vocal tuning were pitch perfect.
OR This is awesome.
This is not good music.
Didn’t Letterman use that “happy halloween” gag when Animal Collective played his show?
I enjoyed the Eminem video more.
I hate MAYA, but I thought this performance was damn cool. Surprised nobody liked it. Looked like it would be fun to be an M.I.A. clone.
this was really great. its too bad she started singing to the middle class -
She should’ve brought out the gingers.
she looks a bit coked up in the end hee hee
I’m getting a special pleasure out of seeing these urgent dismissals of /\/\/\Y/\. MIA is smarter than people give her credit for. She counted on the predictably narrow denunciations of her album – which only legitimises everything on it. /\/\/\Y/\ is easily comprehensive for anyone with the wit to remain objective. The songs are well composed – progressing from technocratic paranoia and automatism in its beginning, to melodic and more human melodies in the end. And, best of all, they all challenge and expose the typical cynicism America has for Middle Eastern cultural success in Western markets. Americans are the suckers here. MIA set the bait, and everyone took it.
^Cock alert
shitty hipster music is shitty
i agree teapartier
People are wrong about this record. If panda bear put out an album dubbed “a grower” people would give him the benifit of the doubt. Talent borrows, genius steals, ask Bob Dylan. You guys are very critical.
Ever heard of Atari Teenage Riot? I think MIA has. Lots of noise with words… it has its time and place. Just not right now for me. Performance was good though and anytime something like this gets prime time air, it’s worth it… especially if it rubs people the wrong way. Needs to happen sometimes, y’know? And when Panda Bear releases his next release I think I would like to take a shit on it.
i love mia
but when talking about MAYA everyones like bla bla her politics, image, and its a big fuck you and all
but when it comes down to it
theres no songs, melodys, and some of her rhymes are just silly “rub a dub a dub dub?” her music used to be catchy AND raw, now its just raw
so MAYA is 2/3′s fail
This performance gives me hope for M.I.A. still doing great things after this shitty fucking album.
I swear M.I.A.’s “Born Free” uses a riff from Steven Jesse Bernstein. It’s like she borrowed the groove from “No, No Man” — and made it faster. Whatever the case, I dig it.
Wow. This is an epic pile of shit. And it appears she is lip syncing on top of that? God. Original or not, this is horrible music.
all of your lame comments suck – who are you to judge what’s music and what’s not. music is a form of expression and MIA has always been good at that. i am a huge fan and will always love her. she’s my no means tone deaf and she’s not singing to the middle class – she has NO control over who buys her stuff. all of you haters can fuck off!
Nah… I think some of us are free to express what we think is horrible as much as you have the right to believe what you think good music is. Now granted, I love M.I.A.’s previous albums but this new one is just really hard to get into …and believe me I’m almost forcing myself to like it.
P.s. And on behalf of everyone here I would like to extend my apologies to you for hating on M.I.A. and in turn hurting your feelings.
hey Carrie, stop hating on people that dislike things you like. It’s a fact that she has pitch issues (it’s not an opinion whether someone can sing in tune or not, it’s a measurable factor) and it’s a fact that she doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the music she has put out aside from the striving-to-be-political-and-controversial lyrics, which we also know is a stretch from the reality of her life.
you’re such a hater. stop hating. too much hate coming from you. hater