Born Free
Looks like we have another music video controversy on our hands, this time courtesy of our favorite Sri Lankan singer, songwriter, rapper, producer, fashion designer and icon, visual artist and political activist M.I.A.! What fun. The controversy surrounds the new graphic and violent video for ‘Born Free’, which premiered on her website Monday. By Tuesday, the video had been removed by Youtube. The video, directed by Romain Gavras (Justice’s A Cross the Universe), follows a SWAT-esque team (donning American flags on their shoulders), tearing through an apartment building harassing tenants (including crack-heads and an over-weight couple mid-coitus), finally happening upon their target: a ginger. The SWAT team takes the young man and forces him onto a bus filled with other ginger prisoners. We follow the bus out to a desert, where the fate of the gingers becomes all too evident with the execution of a child; the rest of the prisoners are forced to run through a minefield (one of the last shots of the video is one ginger blown literally to bits in slow motion). If you have the stomach, you can watch the video below (it’s also streaming on her website).
Born to a Tamil activist father, M.I.A. has never been one to shy from controversy or political activism: she remains one of the most outspoken figures on the horrors that occurred during the decades of civil war and genocide in her home country of Sri Lanka. And she continues with her message at the forefront of her music. With no release date or even a name for the album, not to mention remaining clearly absent from this video, M.I.A. is not allowing her celebrity or internet gossip to distract from her political message. When the video was pulled, though, M.I.A. hopped onto Twitter and tweeted her fury (mostly in CAPSLOCK) to the world. But the controversy is missing two key players: Matt Stone and Trey Parker. The mobilization of carrot-tops, the targeting of red-heads, even militant gingerism has already been covered by the South Park creators. More importantly, though, the duo themselves are in the midst of dealing with their own censorship issues concerning their recent portrayal (or lack-thereof) of the Muslim prophet Muhammad in their 200th and 201st episodes. Luckily for you and me, we’ve got the internet as our haven for free speech and expression. In that vein, FUCK BALLS SHITKNOCKERS here are some tunes:
There’s Space For Ol Dat I See – M.I.A.
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Sound of Siren (feat. Busy Signal & M.I.A.) – Major Lazer
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Rain Dance (feat. M.I.A.) – The Very Best
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Peace.
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