During the conclusion of last week’s episode of Entourage, movie star Vincent Chase goes skydiving in a desperate search for the rush he’s long since lost as a major celebrity. As the character plummets towards the ground, the weightless voice of M.I.A. sings out “Gravity is my enemy” and the final track of her latest album, MAYA, folds into the closing credits. It’s the best context yet for the album and artist that has struggled to resonate with the a global audience in 2010. First there was the politically unsophisticated if visually shocking video for the song “Born Free” which was banned from Youtube for it’s graphic depiction of redheaded youths being blown up. The clip garnered heavy-buzz, but little conversation about the dissonant song it accompanied. That was followed in quick succession by a scathing cover story in New York Times Magazine, a willfully eligible album title (officially it’s /\/\ /\ Y /\), a scathing review of the CD on the ultra-influential website Pitchfork.com and most recently, the cancellation of the 25,000 person HARD LA festival—which banked on M.I.A. to both headline and curate the line-up—due to poor ticket sales. …MORE
It’s been a rough couple of months for M.I.A. with the difficult launch of her third album, Maya. Some call it classic media backlash, while others will insist that the album’s challenging sound fails to live up to her previous efforts. But M.I.A. has always had her ups and downs. Here’s some of the most significant ones in her career.
Every couple of years, Diplo releases a mixtape that pretty much makes the whole game stop and say “woah.” Not to say that his recently released Gucci Mane tape, Best of the Cold War Mixtapes, will have the impact of his M.I.A. tape Piracy Funds Terrorism, but you never know.
Now Diplo has offered up all 15 tracks, unmixed, un-edited and without the drops from Lil Jon and Tim & Eric. So you can look forward to a whole lot of mediocre DJs trying to get their Diplo on in the upcoming months.
There’s also one remix that didn’t make the original tape:
Gucci Mane – I Be Everywhere (Diplo Remix)
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Download the ZIP at Mad Decent.
If one producer has the golden touch when it comes to mixtapes, it’s got to be Diplo. We rock his M.I.A. collab Piracy Funds Terrorism more than Seth Rogan jocks “Paper Planes.” And you know Diplodocus had something to do with Santogold Santigold getting that Budweiser scrilla with their Vs. mixtape. So how hot is it to know that Diplo will be remixing Gucci Mane’s Cold War mixtapes in time for the Dec 8 release of Gucci debut album, The State Vs. Roderic Davis.



























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