Truly Subversive Mya

M.I.A. Walking around the streets of Nova Iguaçu, Rio de Janeiro, I heard pretty much one sound: funk. I couldn't really get my mind around it, and it just sounded like really low-budget electro with really loud girls, usually, screaming. It kinda had a Miami Bass sound to it, but I was not a big fan. Then, one day in 2005, I heard somebody playing something different, with some of those Rio funk beats, but a whole different sound...that was Mya. For those of you who don't know too much about my nominee for a truly subversive member of TSG, let me quote from her official website:

"Maya was born in Hounslow, London but spent little time there as, at only 6 months old, her parents moved the family back to their native Sri Lanka. Motivated by her fathers wish to support the Tamil efforts to win independence from the majority Sinhalese population, her father became politically known as Arular and was a founder member of EROS (the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students), a militant Tamil group. In Sri Lanka, they lived at first on her grandparent's remote farm, a collection of huts without electricity or running water. After a year, as her fathers involvement in militant activities increased, Maya, her older sister Kali and their mother moved to Jaffna in the far North of the country, where Maya's younger brother Sugu was born. Contact with her father was strictly limited as he was in hiding from the army, he occasionally visited in secret, slipping through the window at night and being introduced to the children as an uncle so that they didn't give him away to the army when they regularly came to question the family. Eventually, as the civil war escalated, it became unsafe for them to stay in Sri Lanka, so her father sent tickets for them to relocate to Madras in India. Maya's mother moved with the three children into an almost derelict house, 3 miles from the nearest road or neighbor. They scraped by for a while, with sporadic visits from Maya's father, and the girls attended the local school, excelling as students. After a while, visits from friends and family grew less frequent and money grew very tight. The children became ill, Maya's sister caught Typhoid and they struggled to eat enough. A visiting uncle took concern and moved them back to Sri Lanka again, where they settled back in Jaffna. By now, the violence of the civil war was at its peak and the family repeatedly tried to flee the country. The army regularly shot Tamils seeking to move across border areas and bombed roads and escape routes. After several failed attempts to leave, Maya's mother successfully made it out with the three children, on to India and then finally back to London, where they were housed as refugees. "

Now, that was just the beginning, and after art school in London, things started to take off for the Tamil Tiger's daughter. She produced her first LP, Arular, which was her father's nickname, and blew up, jumping onto many best album of the year lists. This month her newest album has just been released, Kala, and after listening to most of it, I can safely say it is amazing. Using sounds from around the globe, Mya may be the future of music. Take a minute, go to Youtube, and type in MIA Kala. You won't be disappointed.