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Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam (born on July 17, 1977 in Hounslow, London, England)^[1] is a Sri Lanka-raised rapper, singer and artist. She is best known by her stage name, M.I.A.. Her style contains elements of grime, hip-hop, ragga, dancehall, electronica, reggaeton and baile funk.

Biography

Early life

Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, the daughter of a Tamil activist-turned-revolutionary-guerrilla,^[2] Arul Pragasam, was born in Hounslow, London. When she was six months old, her family moved back to their native Sri Lanka. Motivated by his wish to support the Tamil efforts to win independence from the majority Sinhalese population, her father became politically known as Arular ^[1] and was a founding member of The Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS), a militant Tamil group. Her alias, "M.I.A." stands for "Missing in Acton". She says her alias references both her London neighborhood (Acton) and her politically tumultuous youth.^[3]

While residing in Sri Lanka, Maya lived with her family on her grandparents' remote farm, a collection of huts without electricity or running water. After a year, as her father's involvement in militant activities increased, Maya, her older sister Kali, and their mother moved to Jaffna in the far north of the country, where Maya's younger brother Sugu was born. Contact with her father was strictly limited, as he was in hiding from the Sri Lankan Army (which is reported to engage in the torture of Tamil males).^[4] He occasionally visited in secret, slipping through the window at night and being introduced to the children as "an uncle" so that his identity and whereabouts would not be given away to the army when they regularly came to question the family.

Eventually, as the civil war escalated, it became unsafe for the family to stay in Sri Lanka, so they were forced to relocate to Madras, India. They moved into an almost derelict house three and a half miles from the nearest road or neighbor. They survived there for a while, with sporadic visits from Arular, and the girls attended the local school, excelling as students. However, visits from friends and family grew less frequent and money grew very tight. The children became ill; Kali caught typhoid fever and the family struggled to survive on a limited amount of food and water. A visiting uncle took concern and moved them back to Sri Lanka, where they settled in Jaffna again.

By now, the violence of the civil war was at its peak, and the family once again tried to flee the country. The army regularly shot Tamils seeking to move across border areas and bombed roads and escape routes. After several failed attempts to leave, Maya’s mother successfully made it out with the three children, arriving first in India before finally returning to Maya's birthplace in London, where they were housed as refugees.

It was in the late 80s, on a council estate in Mitcham, Surrey, that an eleven-year-old Arulpragasam began to learn the English language. Here she was exposed to Western radio for the first time, hearing broadcasts emanating from her neighbors' flats. Her affinity for hip-hop and rap began from there. The uncompromising attitudes of Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, Roxanne Shante and N.W.A. clicked with a frustrated, energetic war-child trying to relate to grey and foreign surroundings.^[1] "Those records were rhythmic, so whether you understood the language or not, you could understand the music," she now says.

Art and film

Maya was a talented and creative student, eventually winning a place at London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, where she studied fine art, film and video. Here, for the first time, she began to piece together some of the different strands of her life experience. In an early incarnation of what was later to become M.I.A., she learned how to play off her different cultural personae against each other; layering rap iconography with the warfare pictures from her youth, Asian Britain with American new-wave film making style and St. Martin's fashion sense with refugee outlooks.

A successful art career beckoned and, for a while, seemed to be Maya's destined path. Her first-ever public exhibition of paintings in 2001 at the Euphoria Shop in Portobello, London, featured candy coloured spray-paint and stencil pictures of the Tamil rebellion movement. Graffitied tigers and palm trees mixed with orange, green and pink camouflage, bombs, guns and freedom fighters on chip board off-cuts and canvases. The show was nominated for the Alternative Turner Prize,^[1] every painting sold (Jude Law is a patron of her art) ^[5] and a monograph book of the collection was published by Pocko ¹ (which was simply entitled M.I.A.).

Music beginnings

A commission from Elastica's Justine Frischmann to provide the artwork and cover image for the band's second album, The Menace, led to Arulpragasam following the band on tour around forty American states, video-documenting the event, and eventually directing the music video for Elastica's single, "Mad Dog". The support act on the tour, electro-clash artist Peaches, introduced Arulpragasam to the Roland MC-505 sequencing machine and gave her the courage to take on the one artform she felt least confident in, music. Back home in London, Arulpragasam and Frischmann got hold of their own 505 and, working with the simplest of set-ups (a second-hand 4-track, the 505 and a radio microphone), Arulpragasam worked-up a series of six songs onto a demo tape which became her calling card to the industry. This tape included the first track she had ever composed, "M.I.A.", the second track she had ever composed, "Galang", and "Lady Killer". The tape found its way into the hands of Steve Mackey and Ross Orton who then re-worked the track "Galang" into the diverse meld of influences that would eventually propel M.I.A. into the limelight.

An innovative recipe of dancehall, electro, grime and world music, Showbiz Records only pressed 500 copies of the independent vinyl single "Galang", but that was enough for her to win the widespread and immediate support of DJ's and the media. Numerous major record labels caught onto the underground success of "Galang" and M.I.A. eventually signed to XL Recordings home to Dizzee Rascal, Basement Jaxx and the White Stripes, embracing them as they were the only label to offer her complete creative control. She also chose them because it was the closest to her house, telling the label, "Trust me, you've been looking for me",^[7] before dropping off the "Galang" tape. They called her back 20 minutes later.

"Galang" was rereleased. The accompanying music video for "Galang", featuring multiple M.I.A.’s amid a backdrop of her graffiti artwork animated and brought to life, was directed by Ruben Fleischer and art directed by M.I.A. herself. Scenes of urban Britain and the war in Sri Lanka are depicted and delivered with a wry sense of humour.

For her next single release, "Sunshowers", Arulpragasam again hooked up with Ross Orton and Steve Mackey who had furnished her so successfully with the beats on "Galang". Together they pushed boundaries even further with minimalist production and a reworked chorus from Dr. Buzzards Original Savannah Band’s track of the same name to create a template for her to fire out her young-girl bravado, this time about guerrilla warfare and the Sri Lankan war. A lush video was made for the track, which she filmed in the jungles of South India with acclaimed director Rajesh Touchriver. To this day, MTV refuses to play the video until the references to the Palestine Liberation Organization are removed from the song. Maya refuses to comply with their requests (although she has recently appeared on an MTV Live spot online where this reference is uncensored).

Meeting Diplo

After hearing his single, "News Flash", and loving it, Arulpragasam tracked down and met with Diplo, the Mississippi-born DJ originally named Wesley Pentz, to work on some material. She says of his song now: "It had that same homelessness about it. It didn't have a particular genre, which is what people always say to me: Your song doesn't fit anywhere. So I went on a mad mission to find other people like that, because then we could make a home."

Arulpragasam approached Diplo when he was DJing one night at the Fabric Club, London. "Besides me being a white dude from Florida and her being a Sri Lankan girl in England, everything else was the same: [We were both] film graduates, [listened to] all the same music when we were kids, were going in the same direction right now in music, it was amazing."^[8] he said of their meeting. Coincidently, Diplo was playing "Galang" as she entered the club.

The next month, Arulpragasam left for Philadelphia to work on the production of her first composition and the hidden track on her album, "M.I.A.," with Diplo, and to also collaborate on new material. Nothing worthwhile came of it, until Diplo began experimenting with a capellas of the tracks on Arular, remixing, sampling and mashing them up with already famous rappers and musicians, eventually using the material created during the sessions to build the mixtape Piracy Funds Terrorism.

Piracy Funds Terrorism was initially only given to the press and handed out at early live shows, but because of the album's huge underground success, Turntablelab.com began releasing the mixtape exclusively through their website around December, 2004. The mixtape added to the already building hype of Arulpragasam's debut album and also forced people to acknowledge the mixtape subculture in general. It also established M.I.A.'s growing fanbase within the music and MP3-sharing blogosphere.

Diplo later produced the third track on Arular, "Bucky Done Gun," which mixes the popular baile funk sound from Rio de Janeiro with a sample from the "Theme From Rocky". The two are romantically involved and briefly toured together. Recently, there were rumours of a break up. However, as of September 2005, M.I.A. confirmed the two are still together during her appearance on MuchMusic's MuchOnDemand. M.I.A. also appeared, but did not perform, with Diplo at his DJ set on December 30, 2005 in Chicago as part of Pitchforkmedia.com's New Year's festivities.

Arular

Fresh off the response to the mixtape's circulation in late 2004, and prior to the release of her debut LP, Arulpragasam made her North American debut at the Drake Hotel in Toronto on February 2, 2005. According to Toronto organiser Jacob Smid the “Response was phenomenal”.^[9] She followed this with a sold out performance at New York City’s Knitting Factory club the next day. “She brings out such a diverse crowd…At the time, it seemed like she was still under the radar; the record wasn't out but people were singing along to every song", Smid recalled to Pollstar Magazine. "It was really cool to see.”^[9]

On the heels of months of anticipation, Arulpragasam’s debut album Arular was finally released in March 2005 in North America, and was simultaneously released around the world to widespread critical acclaim. M.I.A. followed the release of the album with strongly received performances at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on May 1, 2005, at the Manhattan club S.O.B.s,^[10] as well as at New York City's Central Park Summerstage, the Glastonbury Festival and Japan's Summer Sonic Fest.^[11]

On July 19, 2005, M.I.A was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize for Arular.^[12] In December, 2005, Arular was named number 1 album of the year by Stylus Magazine' and influential music website I Love Music. Amazon.com named it their number 2 album of the year. Spin Magazine and URB named M.I.A. their artist of the year for 2005. Blender Magazine named Arular the album of the year for 2005. Rolling Stone named Arular one of the top albums of 2005. TIME Magazine also listed Arular as one of the top 10 best albums released in 2005 as part of their "Best of 2005" section. Influential indie music site Pitchfork Media (www.pitchforkmedia.com) named Arular the #4 best album of 2005.

Censorship

The nature of M.I.A.'s art work and lyrics has led to increased curiosity into her career and levels of censorship of her work. M.I.A.'s official website has been visited by a curious US Government numerous times,^[5] MTV still refuses to play the video of her single "Sunshowers" until references to the PLO are removed from the song, and recently the artist was denied a visa to enter America, despite having previously lived and worked in the country. The reasons for the denial of a visa remain unclear.^[13] M.I.A. has however previously stated in an interview about censorship of her work:

2006 – present

M.I.A. ended 2005 embarking on her first North American concert tour, joining Gwen Stefani on her Harajuku Lovers Tour. The arrival of 2006 saw her performing her final arena dates of the tour in Japan, and returning to the studio to work on her upcoming album. At the end of May 2006, Arulpragasam hosted the long running Australian alternative music show Rage as a guest programmer. The show was very well received. So far, Maya has recorded in Tamil Nadu and Trinidad and Tobago for her next album, and a few tracks were originally going to be produced by the legendary Timbaland, who has produced songs for the likes of Jay-Z, Missy Elliott and Xzibit. However, according to a recent message board posting by Diplo, M.I.A. will be producing her new album all by herself, and has funded the music video for the lead single, "Bird Flu", herself.^[14] Images from behind the scenes on the production of this new music video have been released on M.I.A.'s myspace account.^[15]M.I.A. is also working with Oscar-winners Three 6 Mafia on two songs for her next album.^[16]

Discography

Albums

Singles

Guest appearances

Awards and nominations

Art

Music

Trivia

Notes

Note 1: Arulpragasam, Maya (2002). M.I.A. No. 10 (Paperback ed.). Pocko Editions. ISBN 1-903977-10-X

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Steven Loveridge: M.I.A.: Biography. Isfm.net. November 2004. Retrieved 30 March 2006.
^ Dorian Lynskey: Fighting Talk. The Guardian. 22 April 2005. Retrieved 19 April 2006.
^ Robert Wheaton: London Calling - For Congo, Columbo, Sri Lanka.... PopMatters. 6 May 2005. Retrieved 19 April 2006.
^ Frances Harrison: Sri Lanka's Torture Shame. BBC. Released 26 June 2001. Retrieved 3 May 2006.
^ ^a ^b Kitty Empire: Flash-forward. The Guardian. 20 March 2005. Retrieved 22 May 2006.
^ M.I.A.: The Pocko Art Collection. Pocko Editions. Published 30 October 2002. Retrieved 30 March 2006.
^ ^a ^b Mark Pytlik: Interview: M.I.A.. Pitchforkmedia. 14 March 2005. Retrieved 12 April 2006.
^ Mark Pytlik: Interview: Diplo. Pitchforkmedia. 4 April 2005. Retrieved 18 April 2006.
^ ^a ^b Mitchell Peters: M.I.A.. Pollstar Magazine. 5 September 2005. Retrieved 30 March 2006.
^ Peter Shapiro: Talking about her revolution. The Times. 17 June 2005. Retrieved 19 April 2006.
^ XL: M.I.A. Biography. XL Recordings. Summer 2005. Retrieved 30 March 2006.
^ Emma Forrest: MIA, Myself and I. The Guardian. 4 September 2005. Retrieved 19 April 2006.
^ MIA Denied Entry To the US. The Spacelab. Spring 2006. Retrieved 22 May 2006.
^ M.I.A.FansForum: M.I.A. working alone on her new album. M.I.A. Fan Forum. Retrieved 9 August 2006.
^ On the set of M.I.A.'s new video. M.I.A. Video Still. Retrieved 9 August 2006.
^ http://mixonline.com/news/headline/ardent-mia-album-091206/
^ Daniel Robert Epstein: Interview: M.I.A.. Suicidegirls.com. 29 December 2005. Retrieved 20 August 2006.
^ John Singleton - M.I.A. once eyed a career as a film-maker. Contactmusic.com. 04 October 2005. Retrieved 20 August 2006.
^ Mark Binielli: Guerrilla Goddess. Rolling Stone. 15 December 2005. Retrieved 20 August 2006.

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