M.I.A. – the video clip roundup

So I have decided to write an essay up about the political positioning of M.I.A. who has commodified her own  brand of transcultural politics into a unique aesthetic which appropriates sound and images from all around the world. Here are her videoclips:

• “Paper Planes“, Kala, 2007.
  Sample lyrics:
  I fly like paper, get high like planes
  If you catch me at the border I got visas in my name
  If you come around here, I make ‘em all day
  I get one down in a second if you wait
• “Jimmy“, Kala, 2007.
  Sample lyrics:
  When you go Rwanda, Congo
  Take me on your genocide tour
  Take me on a truck to Darfur
  Take me where you would go
  Got static on the satellite phone
  Got to get you safe at home
  Gonna get you somewhere warm
  So you get me all alone
• “Boyz“, Kala, 2007.
  Sample lyrics:
  How many no money boyz are crazy
  How many boyz are raw?
  How many no money boyz are rowdy
  How many start a war?
• “Bird Flu“, Kala, 2007.
  Sample lyrics:
  Big on the underground
  What’s the point of knocking me down?
  Everybody knows
  I’m already good on the ground
  most of us stay strong
  shit don’t really bound us
  then I go on my own
  making bombs with rubber bands

  I have my hard down
  so I need a man for romance
  streets are making em hard
  so they selfish little roamers
  jumpin’ girl to girl
  make us meat like burgers
  when I get fat
  I’ll pop me out some leaders

• “Sunflowers“, Arular, 2004.
  Sample lyrics:
  Semi-9 and snipered him
  On that wall they posted him
  They cornered him
  and then just murdered him

  He told them he didn’t know them
  He wasn’t there they didn’t know him
  They showed him a picture then
  Ain’t that you with the Muslims?

• “Galang“, Arular, 2003.
  Sample lyrics:
  they say
  rivers gonna run though
  work is gonna save you
  pray and you will pull through
  suck a dick’ll help you
  don’t let em get to you
  if he’s got 1 you get 2
  backstab your crew
  sell it i could sell you
• “Bucky Done Gun“, Arular, 2005.
  Sample lyrics:
  Can I get control
  Do you like me vulnerable
  I’m armed and I’m equal
  More fun for the people
  Physical, Brute force
  Steel, lion you’re the boss
  Yeah, you’re so do-able
  Grind me down sugar slow

And some live clips:

• “Hussel” at Lowlands, 2007.

  (Note how she tells the audience at the start that she is going to take them to Africa)