Music Review (WCW Edition): AIM

Happy Wednesday!

I was actually going to do this music review on my regular Tuesday post but M.I.A is so amazing that I wanted to talk about her on Woman Crush Wednesday. I hope after reading this article that she becomes yours too.

M.I.A. released her new album AIM last Friday (Sept. 9th). I will start by saying that this is a very powerful album. M.I.A has always been that artists to talk about important issues that were relevant to our world. She is influenced by many different cultures, along with her own, and it definitely shows in her music. She has never been afraid to speak her mind and stand up for the oppressed. But that has caused many issues for her and her career because people have literally tried to kick her out of the industry. It’s another case of people being afraid to accept what’s really going on around them. Not much has changed since she first started talking about it all.

“… As a self-identified Tamil refugee who’s lived between Sri Lanka, India, the U.K., and U.S.A., M.I.A. has been fiercely outspoken about human rights issues. But her desire to act as a conduit for different cultural struggles has made her a lightning rod for criticism, from both consumers and corporations alike…” (The Fader Magazine)

Check out the rest of the article here —- > http://www.thefader.com/2016/09/12/mia-aim-interview-politics

I love the opening song “Borders”, her Skrillex assisted song “Go Off”, “Foreign Friend” featuring Dexta Daps, and “A.M.P.”. And I still really do love “Freedun” that features Zayn Malik. Now those of you who keep up with me know that I am a huge Zayn fan but trust me when I say that I don’t just like this song because of him. But M.I.A. brings out something different in Zayn on this record. And I know he loves and admires her so much which makes this collaboration so perfect. She speaks about Zayn in her interview with The Fader and she truly understand where he is right now since no one else seems to understand.

When asked about not being a precedent for a Muslim artist like Zayn, M.I.A. said:

“… Yeah. [He’s] not American Muslim either. You can have [artists like] DJ Khaled or French Montana coming from inside America, but this is different because he’s slightly [more] connected to the rest of the world. He’s transitioning from not talking about something, to having to carry all the pressures of somebody who embodies all these things. Even if he’s not playing that card, we project all that shit onto him…”

I feel that it describes perfectly what is being done to Zayn in the public eye. He had tried to speak on the whole Black Lives Matter movement, got attacked for his words, and he deleted it completely. I wasn’t so upset about what he said but the fact that you can tell he wasn’t too educated about it all before saying anything. It wasn’t right for him to be attacked for trying though. M.I.A kind of did the same thing but she didn’t hide from her comments and was not able to headline or perform at Afropunk London earlier this year.

The crazy thing is, M.I.A.says that this is her last album ever. I hate to hear that but I understand if she’s doing it because she said what she needed to say and is tired of the bull sh*t that comes with speaking your mind on important world issues.

If you want music that makes you think  and you want to expand your music horizons a bit then you need to listen to M.I.A. You have too keep an open mind though because she is not like other artists out there. But she is worth a listen.

Check out her video for “Borders” below: