“Popular, popular, I’m really really pop-u-lar” goes the sardonic, off-the-cuff riff spontaneously spouted by controversial Sri Lankan-British hip-hop artist M.I.A. aka Maya, at an early point in Steve Loveridge‘s energetic, scattered but surprisingly deep-cut documentary about her life. It’s a bit of home video footage taken from around the time of M.I.A.’s first brush with success, after getting signed to XL Recordings in London and releasing her first single “Galang,” and it’s the combination of these pre-fame, pre-infamy moments, with the more knowing and pointed footage from later that gives the film its edge, and a shifting, ironic perspective that is admiring while never letting the subject get too big for her boots (often high-tops, sometimes Docs).

Continue reading ‘Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.’ Is A Deep-Cut Doc About The Making Of A Singular Artist [Zurich Review] at The Playlist.

In 2007 there was a song that stood out, one that everyone loved, and one that has recently turned into a meme on Twitter.  The song, you will recognize by the following line; “All I wanna do is *gunshot noises* and *cash register noise* take your money.” The song, which spent 20 weeks on the Billboard charts peaking at number 4, if you don’t recognize it, is “Paper Planes” by M.I.A.

M.I.A., as most of the world knows her, began as Matangi.

Continue reading ‘MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A.’ Trailer: New Doc Provides An Intimate Look At The Life Of The Outspoken Singer at The Playlist.