Music

Most people who are familiar with M.I.A. mostly remember her ostentatiously pregnant performance at the 2009 Grammy Awards or her flipping the bird at the 2012 Super Bowl. Taking those things into consideration, it's a wonder that she has maintained a sense of bad-assery often challenged by the media, but ostracized by naysayers in general. So, what could she do to surprise everyone, or at least flip that big-mouthed hype-driven third world diva stigma? Make a positive record, apparently.

Her upcoming album, Matangi, was postponed at the end of 2012 after a disagreement with her label for making the record “too positive.” According to an interview with Australian news-source Gold Coast, M.I.A. says that in regard to the current tone of her record, the label wants her to “darken it up a bit.” Looking at her past releases, from 2005's Arular to 2010's MAYA, she's ridden the controversial war-horse by tackling subjects like the PLO and people's obsession/reliance on the internet not only as a source of information, but a source of identity. So, what could this new record have in store? Well, if her latest single “Bad Girls” is any indication, it could very well be a pimped-out party-driven extravaganza of hot cars on two wheels and colorful taste. But, isn't that something a bad girl would want to avoid?