TAG: M.I.A.

Jun27

Santogold: Silver and Gold

The ups and downs of bad outfits and worse parking spots 

By Si Hawkins

It ain’t easy being a fashion icon. Just ask Santi White, better known as Santogold, who’s becoming further aware of this awkward facet of the female fame business with every passing week, wherever she may roam.

A few days ago, the Philly-born artist was trudging around the less-than-sexy English city of Birmingham during a well-earned break from her relentless touring-and-talking schedule, and trying to look as inconspicuous as possible in an “extra horrible” sweatpant and sweatshirt combo. She still got recognized, which is usually cool, but not when you’re sporting extra horrible sweats and the general public is looking to you as a trendsetter. Worse, it’s starting to happen on a daily basis back home in Brooklyn, too.

“They have this stupid alternate-side parking rule, so four days a week I …

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Jun11

New M.I.A. ‘Boyz’ (Video)

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May17

M.I.A.: World Party

M.I.A. took a cornucopia of international beats to help create the crossover club scene we now enjoy. URB finds out that kick starting the party was only the beginning 

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A sultry, sleepy Monday evening in April and the owner of The Fenerbahçe Social Club looks a little bewildered that the force of nature called M.I.A. has chosen to blow a whirlwind through his less-than-glamorous premises. As Maya Arulpragasam drapes herself over a pool table, pulls shapes, prances around and generally distracts the table of middle-aged Turkish guys who are trying to get on with some low-stakes gambling, the proprietor prowls around us in a progressively more agitated fashion until, finally, he snaps, barking something undecipherable but clearly unpleasant and unceremoniously pushing us all out onto the East London street.

It’s been 18 months since URB last hung out with M.I.A., having appointed her our joint Artist of the Year in 2005 (along with Bloc Party), but she’s hardly been idle since then. The remainder of her world tour was …

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May17

M.I.A.: Maya In Action

URB tried, and failed to show M.I.A. the time of her life. We got a snapshot of her life instead. 

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By Si Hawkins

This being the party issue, URB’s original plan for M.I.A. was to attend a rooftop bash thrown by a friend at her UK label, XL. But at the last minute she nixed that idea, deciding to do something a little more in keeping with her album’s multi-cultural vibe, suggesting a mini world tour of London. Only problem: on a Monday night the rest of the city can’t really keep up.

First up, we head to a Jamaican bar called The Shacklewell Arms, usually loud and proud, but tonight, like a morgue. Clearly it isn’t going to miraculously get busy, so Maya makes a few furtive phone calls to some old mates in the hope of finding a proper party somewhere, anywhere. She’d been trying to locate a Nigerian wedding originally, but “all the Nigerians I know said, ‘We don’t …

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Feb22

Little Amanda Blank takes big step

We thought it was charming when we found out that Amanda Blank, the nubile rapstress who went toe to toe with nasty boys Spank Rock on the underground hit “Bump,” only had a personal MySpace page. But now she's gone and grown up and got herself a MySpace Music page , and just in time as demonstrates her more songstress style, but still with plenty of casio beats, and—on “Take It Easy”—one miss M.I.A.

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