As much as I love MIA’s music, explaining her politics has been one continuous migraine. Especially since I live in hipsterland, and all the kool kids wanted to know if I was related to a “freedom fighter” too when she first made a splash with Arular. She’s toned down the LTTE rhetoric recently and, heaven help me, I’m still a huge fan…but there’s a new Sri Lankan kid on the scene, and he’s determined to inject another perspective into the fray and take her down a peg or two.
“All she wanna do is [bang][bang][bang] and [ka-ching!] take your money” he raps over MIA’s “Paper Planes” instrumental while images of the aftermath of LTTE suicide bombs flash across the screen. (The images are as gruesome as one would expect, so please consider this a disclaimer.)
The video was released less than a week ago, and keeps getting yanked off YouTube by Universal Music Group (MIA’s record label). Go to CeylonRecords to see it if the embedded video above has been disabled. Meet Delon Jayasingha. Biodata are thin on the ground, but it looks like he’s from L.A. (born there?) and going by his last name, clearly has a Sinhala Sri Lankan dad. He’s coined a new genre named “Salsa Hip-Hop” that sounds exactly as described – hiphop rhymes over salsa rhythms. Check out the link to see a video from his album, The Connection.
His original songs don’t grab me quite the way MIA’s do, but it’s pretty fantastic to have two Sri Lankans out there making ripples. And yeah, I still do think that MIA’s a musical phenomenon. The song is catchy, however you cut it. In terms of her SL politics, however, she’s an opportunist at worst and terribly naive at best. Can’t wait to see how this plays out!
Update: MIA responds:
“I don’t support terrorism and never have,” she wrote in a statement. “As a Sri Lankan that fled war and bombings, my music is the voice of the civilian refugee. Frankly, I am not trying to start dialogue with someone who is really just seeking self-promotion.”
Zing! Does this mean she’s the “establishment” Sri Lankan pop musician now? Reading her statement is pretty amusing since her first album was named for her father’s rebel code name, and she faced accusations of self-promotion herself. For now it appears that the music snobosphere finds her far more exciting than Delon’s derivative output. [Snark meant to encompass this post as well!] But it’s possible that people who dislike MIA’s hard beats (“it sounds like crushing cans!!”-overheard comment) might be exactly the type to gravitate to DeLon’s suburban pimpin’ ways. Hey, even Ja Rule had a heyday.
And even I can get on the MIA train and “self-promote”, dammit! The Pitchfork link references an old Robert Christgau article which in turn referenced my comments on a nerdy music site. I’m the half-n-half in the “heartrending roller coaster of a political debate.” There are so few Sri Lankans talking about the situation there that anyone gets noticed. Even dumbasses with bad handles. And that’s all due to MIA showing up and forcing her way to the forefront of an insular scene with talent, Elastica connections and an exotic backstory. As irritating as Delon the person might be (I’ve watched his other youtube videos since the original post. Smug, much?) now he’s out there talking about Sri Lanka too. And maybe somehow we’ll get to point when people understand there are no sides, just greed and corruption.
Then again, I’d also like a stable full of unicorns, but Mr. C says it ain’t happening.
Thanks to Sonali in NO for the tip!
I guess the concept of mixtapes hasn’t made it to SL yet. Wait 10 years and come back to this post, chandare. Nice touch using her full name too. Cowardly intimidation, typical SLA Internet Brigade behaviour. Shouldn’t you be off (pa)trolling facebook for Tigers?
41 · chandare said
he could be any sort of jackass, doesn’t matter to me, but it’s “D.W. Griffith” and “Riefenstahl” (and those examples are perhaps the most flogged references in recent memory)
Her first solo album was notable because most of it was initially composed on an RC 505 by a certain someone who could never reasonably call herself a musician or even a rapper–even for the base table sugar bands spun into cotton candy that DipShizFork promotes, her popularity was certainly notable. That should detract from the fact that she was ultimately a shtick-peddler like so many other indie creations whose appeal lies chiefly in their ability to generate feedback by frantically waving guitars over amplifiers or conveniently forgetting how to play more than a few chords in their latest 8-minute supersludge masterpiece.
of course if you have a beef with sample-based music, you’d best stop watching TV and listening to the radio, and then buy tickets to every jam-fest in the country (artfully dodging the STS9s and Pnuma Trios as you go).)
Sonali, Probably I do not understand “modern hip-hop culture “. Let the brother sing whatever he likes.You do not like it ,that is fine. If you think M.I.A. is dope that is fine ,too. She is just the vehicle to white suburban ‘alternative” in-crowd to look edgy and balsy .
nayagan is on fire, ya urd me!
did you guys see his podcast? This is some PR TRICKERY. It’s like he’s is trying to pull some rap game beef blah blah blah to get attention. He said he is anti MIA.
whoever she is accessible to doesnt matter. she lived through it. she watched her school burn down. she fled sri lanka. i mean, i dont know any other artist right now who sings about that stuff. if white boys like it, good. but ill tell you what. here in new orleans, black girls like it, hispanic boys like it, gutter punks like it, professionals like it, i mean youre gonna have to let go of this white thing, dude. LOTS OF MINORITIES LIKE HER. EVERYONE LIKES HER. Thats why paper planes is on the charts.
Apples, I like the idea of waiting 10 years coming back to this post.Let’s see whether M.I.A has done anything lasting. (If using your fullname sounded intimidating ,I’m sorry.It rhymed with NOLA.that is why I used it)
This was supposed to be for Sonali
i live in new orleans, i am not easily intimidated. also, thanks for using the whole name. it shows passion. thats nice.
and tanuja does not rhyme with NOLA but appreciate the attempt! 😉
ok, this has been fun. its the first time ive done this respond to blog thing. but it is like crack and i got laundry to do. ill stop by tomorrow. best to the rest.
And this is why the Feds are always watching us 🙂
in solidarity with delon, i just burned my copy of the clash’s “sandinista.” not sure what to do with the white album.
sonali in the N.O.:
Sonali you’re ghetto but you keepin it to da streets; I like dat. Most of the Desi commenters here are white-washed liberals and you’re real. Keep it goin mah brown sistah…
DEEZ NUTS—
while i appreciate your intent, i don’t think being educated and using real words means youre white washed. i just happened to live in a really really black place for a while. its a matter or relating. i’m sure its the same reason delon is latino. anyway, everyone here seems to be pretty cool even if i dont agree with em. everyone is real. even if they dont use ebonics.
i just been around some gangsters before. so i got a lil gumbo in me, thats all.
and to the clash burner—whyd you burn the clash? im confused. is delon your george bush and are we in fahrenheit 451? dude, delon is trying to start a cult.
Cuz like ma man Vijay Prashad sez if you don’ speak ebonics you be a Gunga Din..fo’ shizzle
63 · Deez Nuts In Yo Mouf said
I think that just hurt my head more than the tree I ran into playing ultimate frisbee half an hour ago.
ultimate frisbee is the ultimate white-washed desi sport.
Wow, a twofer: pedo and tard
As red leader once said to Luke Skywalker during their Death Star assault:
Stay on Target
This thread has the potential to rapidly devolve.
Its from Ali G, actually. Guess you didnt catch it… whateva tho man
70 · Abhi said
And look what happened to him in the end… 🙁
68 Deez Nuts on August 6, 2008 11:41 PM ultimate frisbee is the ultimate white-washed desi sport.
Au Contraire… Case in point 1 Case in point 2 http://www.croquetstore.com/ Case in point 3
We do mix up Sean Hannity with Allan Bloom during the breaks…but thank you for reppin on the streets, and uppin our cred…keep on keepin on
URGENT NEED!
E-Online has posted the article about MIA and we need to have 300 comments on their page BY THE END OF TODAY in order to get their attention and further featuring on their site.
You can make a difference right now! Please go to this link right away and express your opinion, this is a pivotal time in this campaign to get the truth out about M.I.A. and her song “Paper Planes”!
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/ask_the_answer_bitch/b22295_mia_paper_planes_on_tear_terror.html
Get the truth out!
Thank you for everything you do…
well, the miskitos are indians too.
75 · Deez Nuts In Yo Mouf: STFU you white washed desi Republican moron
Yes Sir! You got it!
. .. … …. ….. On second thoughts, considering that you have no sense of what sarcasm is…I’m going to put it this way. IF you think that artists who make millions of dollars (MIA) or artists who try to make their million by ripping on someone elses success (Delon), are “keepin it real”…then you need to watch more Dave Chapelle
I thought it was primarily white Repubs who are proponents of Intelligent Design.
Rahul D, #73: heh, heh, heh
And @ 75 · Deez Nuts In Yo Mouf
Trey Parker and Matt Stone must be really happy that they have proven an inspiration to your decision to become a Superhero…NSFW , Safe
oh and GO SHAMROX!
47 · Sonali in the N.O. said
Stop pretending to be Sinhalese Sonali, please. It’s pretty obvious you’re not.
Thank you.
^ M.I.A is the one who used Tamil nationalism to begin with, emblazing her CDs with images of “Tamil Eelam” and logos of the the Tiger in her videos (including one about a suicide bomber), as well as going on about her “freedom fighter” dad. If she’s prepared to do that, then she should be prepared to be critiqued. It’s funny to see “Sonali” blow up in full technicolour and surround sound over Delon’s ‘diss.’
While the use of explosive-filled trucks is not new – the Lebanese Hezbollah used them in the early/mid-1980s – the human bomb, the strapping of the human body with explosives, appears to be a Tiger innovation. Militant groups in West Asia are said to have copied the LTTE’s “explosive jacket” that human bombs wear. The LTTE is easily the world leader in suicide operations. In an interview some years ago, Soosai, the commander of the LTTE’s naval wing, the Sea Tigers, said: “They are using our tactics. I think in Yemen they used our strategy of suicide attack to blow up an American ship. That is exactly what we used to do.” He was referring to al-Qaeda’s attack on the USS Cole in October 2000 in which 17 US military personnel were killed.
link
M.I.A a naive little girl? Er, no.
Oh oh. I spot some party fouls. Its banning time.
200 comments on the eonline article. mad ripples! almost a wave!
Oh, but it’s the usual types arguing back and forth in it. Same old. Sorry Delon. Still at ripple status.
23 · hello said
23 · hello said
After reading many comments, it is clear to me that using children as soldiers and suicide bombers to kill innocent people isn’t such a bad thing because you know it’s sooo “complicated.”
Great biting satire!
88 · chandare
Dude/Miss I’m still going through the posts on that website (very busy day at work) and those posts are hilarious! At first glance it seems like a pretty dumb site, but the tongue-in-cheek is so subtle!
Thank you for that link (Well unless you are sensitive about stuff like that, and being a Telugu I’m sensitive about very few – if any – ethnic divides. So my apologize if I’m being flippant.)
“So my apologize”
My sincerest apologologizies at that…
87 · abdul said
and when Karuna was doing those very things with the blessings of his new partner, the gov’t, it was so simple. and when Pillayan’s goons (finally, Tamils dedicated to gov’t-approved democracy!) were holding an election, in which voters were chaperoned by young guys holding ak-47s, it was also very simple.
Comment # 35 was so thoughtful, thank you for that. I found myself nodding a lot.
I am sinhala, born in SL, living somewhere else. We lived thought the riots of the 80s, we lived through the state and non state bombings. we lived with the JVP curfews (for those who don’t know the deal there is a whole set of conflicts and violence that have nothing to do with ethnicity). I am willing to occupy the muddy space of thinking though all this stuff regarding the various conflicts in SL ( Lets not forget that there is big contingent of the left occupied by sinhala people who are allied with Tamil people speaking up against sri lankan military and their violence. And there are plenty of tamil people critiquing the tigers and their violence. And there is all the histories of violence that trancend sinhala/tamil.
My point is this; Taking MIA’s or Delon’s messaging as a nuanced reporting of reality is ridiculous. Delon is particulary saddening as there are so many thoughtful people that aren’t just pro-sri lankan military campaign…and the fact that his voice is loud, really over simplifies the discourse. Delon and Maya are both speaking to what they know and feel. and it is within their rights to do so…I just wish things weren’t presented around this binaries of good/bad, this side/that side.
and:
so many sinhala people in the diaspora get this.
I’d hate for people to think that all people that have serious issues with support for LTTE violence are as shallow as Delon’s message.
what MIA has going is that she seems open to her own contradicitons. I wish Delon was too. I knew at some point there would be louder Sri Lankan voices that raised issues with MIA’s game…I just hope there are more thoughtful ones.
I’m sorry my thoughts aren’t as organized as comment 35, but there it is.
August, thank you for the previous comment. To answer whoever it was that implied I was Tamil, I say I AM SINHALESE. However, WHO CARES? If I was Tamil I’d still be SRI LANKAN. And maybe thats whats getting washed away. The LTTE doesn’t represent the entire Tamil population. Neither does MIA. DeLon doesnt represent the entire Sinhalese population. But these two have very strong voices right now.
I am more likely to listen to MIA simply because, as August pointed out, she has let the conflict she has with her past and the conflict thats created as a result of her song content be public and a part of a discourse. I am eager to see how DeLon will handle that, esp seeing as how he seems to be a dumb frat boy. Sorry guys. He is so inarticulate it makes me want to smash a beer can on my head.
Anyway, it’s good that at least there are two opposite voices. It makes way for this gray space. I think August has made some serious real analysis. First hand. Thank you.
I wonder how much pops is shelling out to fund this ceylon records thing. When it fails, will he be sent to med school in India or the Caribbean?
Funny points – his next album is called “King of Ceylon” (he was born and raised in LA) – he has a track called ‘We Strugglin’ (…right) – he has a clothing line called ‘Lion Wear’ – the Ceylon Records logo is a lion
I want to be as deluded as this fellow. It seems like a happy place.
Me again. I just wanted to add that on most days I am actually capable of sticking to grammatical conventions. My above post is jumbled (and this one will be too) – was typing fast and didn’t have any time to rewrite what I wanted to say properly, but I had to contribute to the comments.
Anyway, also, thanks cicatrix for posting this, and for allowing a discussion. I remember struggling with my feelings towards MIA at the beginning, and trying to understand all the reasons I felt troubled…and why that was a good thing. Your “Dancing with Myself†was part of my “figuring out†how I feel about MIA (and more importantly her popularity amongst upper class non-SL hipster set)
I think a lot of worry comes from wondering “what will people from outside the SL communities think?†But that worrying about other people can do really ugly things to our own understanding of things and our own desire to be thoughtful and open minded.
was a comment just removed?
M.I.A… If you do not represent the LTTE, then, come out and say clearly, “I DO NOT REPRESENT THE LTTE”! Is that really so difficult?? As a true Sri Lankan, you know exactly what the Tiger represents and as DeLon says, “..it represents the death of the innocence”! And “Sunshowers” – the Sudus might not understand, but, we all know it to be dropping bombs on Colombo! If you really represent the SL, then, stop displaying Tigers and LTTE imagery! And represent the SL with pride like DeLon does!
this is dumb. lets stop talking about delon and MIA and start talking about real strategical ways the government and terrorists can stop the war—with each other and on the people of sri lanka.
who here follows SL news and who here has been back in the past 6 months or lives there now? Where were you when you were back or now, and what do you think it would take to get the two to sit down? What do you think of Pillayan?
GO!
RahulD #89 I do not know whether you have any background knowledge in Sri Lankan politics(specially Sinhala) or debates going on in the public sphere. The other post might make it doubly hilarious if you do ! Anyway ,the post on DeLon can be taken alone and enjoyed even without the background info. http://jathikachinthana.blogspot.com/
from my understanding I don’t think that its MIA’s intent to get people to rally around the heinous violence of the ltte. She seems to be saying: hey the world is a f*cked up place, and this sense of security and luxury you experience is not normal for a large chunk of the world. And then all around that (non committal, blurry) message of hers are these images of tigers and ‘freedom fighters’. And its just very confusing and for some people hurtful and offensive. I guess people want her to say ‘the ltte are bad’ or ‘the ltte are okay’. But I think she’s refusing to do that. Maybe that’s cowardly, or that’s very brave.
either way, it can’t be easy.