The end result has earned her praise all around. But while it might seem as her music is just the latest craze in the quest for finding new interesting genres to break, her lyrics have a deeper meaning. She explains. “In the beginning, I didn’t have the strength to share my experiences but with what was going on in the world that changed fairly quickly.
September 11 and the war against terror made me want to be this person who sees the western world from another angle. I have mastered your language, I’ve gone to your schools, I know your society. When you drop bombs over Afghanistan or some other far away country you can see that through your TV sets in the comfort of your homes. But I want to be the one who sits beside you and tells how it really feels when something like that happens.
I’ve experienced my village being bombed. I know what it feels like when soldiers set your school on fire. There are not many people of my generation who write about these things. Well, there are but not as direct, it’s more like they do it from the experience of seeing it on TV. It gets even worse when artists like Bono or Sting try to make music of it – they don’t really communicate with young people. I try to make music from the perspective that I’ve sought for myself, from a perspective that feels honest to me.”
M.I.A.’s album Arular is released in April.
