M.I.A.

Released: August 8, 2007

Songwriter: M.I.A. Blaqstarr

Producer: Blaqstarr M.I.A.

[Verse 1]
I don't read, yeah, I just guess
As the world turns
Don't bring me with your mess

[Verse 2]
I'm trying to do my best
Get my head up out the stress
When the money turns the world
Your loving turns to less

[Verse 3]
I learn by mistakes
Most of it is yours and
I'm done living life as a criminal
And I thought I'd die young just to please the old
Now I teach the young, I'm vitriol

[Chant]
Nanananananananana
Nanananananananana

[Chorus]
I'd rather go on
Go up and down
Turn myself all around
Then to stay down
I'd rather go on
Go up and down
Turn myself all around
Then to stay down

[Verse 4]
The war in me makes a warrior
Like a pitbull getting with a terrier
I'm better off in North Korea
Yeah, dropping from a barrel of a carrier

[Verse 5]
Coz I got enough to be more
It's hard enough to get more
I shut the door on everything
Just to let my head blow
Coz I got enough to be more
It's hard enough to get more
I shut the door on everything
Just to let my head blow

[Chant]
Nanananananananana
Nanananananananana

[Chorus]
I'd rather go on
Go up and down
Turn myself all around
Then to stay down
I'd rather go on
Go up and down
Turn myself all around
Then to stay down

[Verse 6]
Picture this, a dull grey street in the way
Neon signs gonna shine though
Shorty, you gonna shine though
Come up on ya treasure trove
Let the sun explode
Check up in the paper
In the Mirror for ya horoscope

[Verse 7]
Walking on a tightrope
Go for something I don't even know
Where to get it from
Sending out a signal
Smoke from a gun blow
As I knock off, knock off
Things that I don't want

[Chant]
Nanananananananana
Nanananananananana

One of the most musically-diverse and perplexing artists of the 2000s, Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam is arguably the decade’s best representation of Hip-Hop in its truest form and artistry in its broadest, most diverse format. Her lyrics are as political as Public Enemy, her sound is more eclectic than Stankonia-era Outkast, and she is as aesthetically-driven as Kanye West.

The road that M.I.A. was forced to travel to international stardom was not an easy one. Born on July 18th, 1975 in Hounslow, West London to Sri-Lankan Tamil immigrants, she moved to her parents' homeland when she was only six months old. However, it was the Sri Lankan Civil War which came to shape her childhood. During her formative years, she witnessed many her father was hunted as an enemy of the state, her schools were bombarded, and her impoverished family was constantly in hiding. In 1986, her family moved back to London to find stability and a sense of relative peace.

In England, she discovered her artistic talents and completed several years of secondary education in fine art – eventually gaining attention as a visual artist, painter, and musician. In the early-2000s, Maya began to seriously explore her musical talents and used the internet and underground radio as the means to build her reputation as a unique and talented firebrand. Amidst her no-nonsense politics, however, critics from around the world heard a talent in the making.

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