M.I.A. Says Her Video’s Release Is Being Blocked Because Of “Cultural Appropriation”
M.I.A. is no stranger to clashes with her record label, but the latest issue is truly a puzzling one. On Twitter, M.I.A. says that she shot a recent music video in Africa but that an unknown party (perhaps Interscope, but that’s unclear) is preventing its release because of concerns over “cultural appropriation.” Apparently, the entire video is one shot of a dancer from the Ivory Coast. She hasn’t said what song it goes with, though the recent track “Platforms” seems like a fair bet. In any case, the charge seems deeply strange, since cultural appropriation is sort of what M.I.A. does. Nobody complains when she’s using a Clash sample or a Southern rap drum pattern, and her truly great “Bad Girls” video is, among other things, a testament to how truly badass cultural appropriation can be when it’s done right. By that logic, shouldn’t she be prevented from making videos anywhere but Sri Lanka and London? Here’s what M.I.A. has to say about the situation:
I wanna talk about clutrural appropriation! I've been told I can't put out a video because it's shot in Africa. Discuss
— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) May 18, 2015
What happens when I shoot videos in America or Germany it makes no sense to the 00.01% of artists like me.
— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) May 18, 2015
The video is 1 take shot of a dancer ! The best in the wide world! And he wasn't ever gonna make "_____got talent"
— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) May 18, 2015
If the music industry allows an African artist to come through this year on intnl level, I would gladly give him this video for free.
— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) May 18, 2015
Fingers crossed emoji
Holding breath emoji
— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) May 18, 2015
The video was shot in http://t.co/Zb1lRad8yq . Took me 2 years to locate him
— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) May 18, 2015
I really want to see this video now.