M.I.A. + “Born Free” = NSFW

Friday, April 30th, 2010 | musiX

M.I.A.’s new video for “Born Free” is causing all sorts of commotion, from its message to its getting pulled (temporarily) from YouTube. The video’s allusion to genocidal atrocities throughout history is about as subtle as the collective brains of Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

And the song is no “Paper Planes,” sounding more like Suicide meets Prodigy (probably because of the generous sample from the former’s song “Ghost Rider”)—not sure how it would sound on its own, but as the backdrop to this nine-minute, Rated R short (language, fat people grinding, and fair-skinned, red-headed boys being herded and shot) “Born Free” hits the mark. Expect to hear the track on M.I.A.’s as-yet-untitled new record out June 29.

Probably not the most uplifting video for a Friday afternoon, but if you take M.I.A., NSFW, TGIF, and TDoL you can make words like “win” and “goals” and “sailing,” which are very positive.

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2 Comments to M.I.A. + “Born Free” = NSFW

Zuri
May 1, 2010

Wow. Actually made my way through the whole video. Definitely disturbing. I saw a couple of different themes in this and each related to Arizona’s immigration policy. (That’s probably just me and these wayward times. But I still wonder when the video was shot.) I guess the first not-so subtle cue was passing up the only person of color in all this harassment.

What point is M.I.A. actually trying to make?

Oh, and not a bad song either. But talk about a different plane this video is on.

Mark
May 2, 2010

My guess is that M.I.A. is trying to bring attention to something that’s gone on for decades in a lot of countries that a lot of Americans are oblivious to. What better was to make ‘mercans aware than to have the storyline take place right here—more shocking. It’s kind of a hamfisted approach, but hey, people are talking.

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