LaDyBuG wrote:

---

M.I.A. (or Maya) is a Sri Lankan born female rebel artist from London, England.... Her songs are already all over major stations and Tv Music networks... I can't really describe her style of music.....weird, funky, urban beats, dancehall, marching band trumpets, reggae, rock.....anything goes! I think that because she is so strange in her approach to performing, she will go far.... She does have a unique website no? talk about weird!!! What do you guys think? Do you even understand what she's saying? (cuz I don't) lol....but there's something about the production that's intriguing......at least to music lovers.... http://www.miauk.com DJ's can really get a kick out of her music! -- Edited by LaDyBuG at 06:20, 2005-08-12

---

god dam shes a a lankan !! shiiii never knew that

LaDyBuG wrote:

---

BUCKY DONE GUN.....lol....that's the song I like.....Marilyn, do you know what it means?? People are saying she's half Jamaican or raised in Jamaica....pero nada que ver..... SRI LANKA ALL THE WAY......hahahaha.....who would have thought?

---

      ??? have no clue...all i know that bunky means gun...gun done gun..???

       Here's her bio, she's full sri lankan.

       M.I.A. a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam

Maya was born in Hounslow, London but spent little time there as, at only 6 months old, her parents moved

the family back to their native Sri Lanka. Motivated by her fathers wish to support the Tamil efforts to win

independence from the majority Sinhalese population, her father became politically known as Arular and

was a founder member of EROS (the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students), a militant Tamil group.

In Sri Lanka, they lived at first on her grandparent’s remote farm, a collection of huts without electricity or

running water. After a year, as her fathers 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 army, he occasionally

visited in secret, slipping through the window at night and being introduced to the children as an uncle so

that they didn't give him away to the army when they regularly came to question the family.

Eventually, as the civil war escalated, it became unsafe for them to stay in Sri Lanka, so her father sent

tickets for them to relocate to Madras in India. Maya’s mother moved with the three children into an almost

derelict house, 3 miles from the nearest road or neighbour. They scraped by for a while, with sporadic visits

from Maya’s father, and the girls attended the local school, excelling as students. After a while, visits from

friends and family grew less frequent and money grew very tight. The children became ill, Maya’s sister

caught Typhoid and they struggled to eat enough. A visiting uncle took concern and moved them back to Sri

Lanka again, where they settled back in Jaffna.

By now, the violence of the civil war was at its peak and the family repeatedly 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, on to

India and then finally back to London, where they were housed as refugees.

It was in the late eighties and on a notoriously racist council estate in Mitcham, Surrey, that Maya began to

learn English. Aged just eleven and in a new country, she was exposed to western radio for the first time by

the noise resonating from her neighbours. Her affinity with hip-hop and rap began from there - the

uncompromising attitudes of Public Enemy and N.W.A. clicked with a frustrated, energetic war-child trying to

relate to grey and foreign surroundings.

Maya was a talented and creative student, eventually winning a place at London's Central Saint Martins Art

School, 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

learnt 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 featured candy coloured spray-paint and stencil pictures of the Tamil terrorist   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, every painting sold and a monograph book of the collection was published by Pocko (which

was simply entitled 'M.I.A.', an acronym for Missing In Acton).

A commission from Elastica's Justine Frischmann to provide the artwork and cover image for the band's

second album led to Maya following the band on tour around forty American states, video-documenting the

event. The support act on the tour was electro-clash supremo Peaches, who introduced Maya to the Roland

MC-505 sequencing machine and gave her the courage to take on the one art-form she felt least confident

in, music.

Back home in London, Maya and Justine got hold of their own 505 and, working with the simplest of set-ups

(a second-hand 4-track, the 505 and a radio mic), Maya worked-up a series of six songs onto a demo tape

which became her calling card to the industry. The tape found it's way into the hands of Steve Mackey and

Ross Orton who then re-worked “Galang” into the monstrous meld of influences that would eventually propel

M.I.A. into the limelight.

An addictive mashed-up recipe of dancehall, electro, grime and world music, Showbiz Records only pressed

up 500 copies of “Galang” but that was enough for her to go on and win the instant support of DJs and the

media seemingly everywhere – “M.I.A. HAS THE LOOK, THE LYRICS, THE PROFILE, THE MONGREL BEATS TO BE

HUGE. IF THE MAJORS HAVE ANY SENSE, THEY'LL PILE IN.” Sunday Times Culture.

The majors did indeed pile in with M.I.A. eventually opting to sign to XL Recordings (home to Dizzee Rascal,

Basement Jaxx and the White Stripes), embracing them as they were the only label to offer her 100%

creative control. Meanwhile, the underground success of “Galang” had continued to spread, even earning

M.I.A. plaudits in the American Press - “THE “HEY YA YA HEY” SINGING AT THE END OF “GALANG” IS THIS YEAR’S

RIOT MUSIC.” The New Yorker.

For her next single release (out early ’05 in the US), “Sunshowers,” Maya again hooked up again with Ross

Orton and Steve Mackey who had furnished her so successfully with the insane electro-squelch and

mangled beats on “Galang.” Hitting the UK airwaves this past June, they pushed boundaries even further

with hyper-minimalist production and a reworked chorus from Dr. Buzzards Original Savannah Band’s track

of the same name to create a hypnotic template for her to fire out her young-girl bravado, this time about

guerilla warfare and the Tamil-Sinhalese civil war.

With this first single proper barely on the shelves and no gigs at all to her name, New York's Fader

magazine made her their cover star with the strap-line ‘THIS IS M.I.A. - MUSIC'S NOW THING!’ She flew

out to New York to perform her first ever live set (for the launch of the issue) to a screaming crowd of hyped

fans and then stayed to see Matthew Williamson open and close his fashion week runway show with

“Sunshowers.”

The accompanying 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. On the

surface it looked like a colourful pop video but watch it carefully and you’ll see scenes of urban Britain and

the ongoing Sri Lankan civil war being depicted and delivered with a wry sense of humour. M.I.A. is fast

proving herself to be a far from ordinary pop star.

Her debut album, Arular, is set for release in February 2005. Titled in acknowledgment of her father's past,

Caliche wrote:

---

I THINK SHES ANNOYING... I DUN UNDERSTAND WAT SHES SAYIN. THE SONG GETS STUCK IN MA HEAD!

---

That's exactly how we feel about your posts Caliche!

BUCKY DONE GUN.....lol....that's the song I like.....Marilyn, do you know what it means?? People are saying she's half Jamaican or raised in Jamaica....pero nada que ver.....

SRI LANKA ALL THE WAY......hahahaha.....who would have thought?