MIA - Kala

So I picked this up last week and have listened to it for two straight days now. Gotta say...pretty hot. The album is dense, to be sure, but packed with sounds and verses that kind of make you go, oh that's interesting. There's something about politically conscious hip hop that is usually kind of off-putting to me. Most of the time it's very in your face or the artist seems to be trying to use content to make up for what's lacking in style or skill. M.I.A seems to pull it off beautifully.

The lyrics, the content, are almost more suggestive than explicit. She seems to say a lot without trying very hard. And the beats are pretty ridiculous ("my beats are too evil" yeah). The Timbaland track is so sick...mellow, smooth, the whole thing is on skates. The Clash sample she lifts on Paper Planes is amazing, tweaked and spaced out and sounding not at all like the Clash - using gun shots and cash registers to get the point across (who needs lyrics anyway?). Overall the whole thing is just hard - no other word. The rawness and mix of sounds, from all over the globe, recall an excitement and creativity from the early days of hip hop - experimental, less glossy and stylized - I wish more rappers were so unconcerned.

Plus I just think she's a badass. (http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/44529-mia-confronts-the-haters)