This may shock you but I, Rhys Laverty, am about to write a blog praising a rap video for being violent.
MIA is best known for her alternative hip-hop hit "Paper Planes" in 2008, and the Diplo Street Remix featuring Bun B and Rich Boy. I thought it was a fantastic piece of hip-hop. However, I kept my distance from MIA. I was never quite sure of her, never quite willing to really fall in love with her, or understand why she was always rated as one of the most influential and innovative artists around.
Then, last week, "Born Free" was released.
Her latest single is a 9 minute piece of abrasive alternative rap which samples the song "Ghost Rider" by cult post-punk favourites Suicide. Eclectic and alternatively cultured as that may sound, the fuss about it comes from the video:
http://vimeo.com/11219730
It's a 9 minute short film. And it is incredibly graphic. It was dropped on us without warning and we realised suddenly that it was NSFW (Not Safe For Work). It shows a group of US soldiers violently rounding up a load of gingers, driving them out to the desert, shooting a child in the head, making the gingers run across a mine field, beating an escapee to death and ends with one of the gingers being incredibly and graphically blown to bloody smithereens.
It was removed from YouTube. It sent shockwaves and ripples throughout the indie music world. Why?
It's because it is genuinely shocking. It is genuinely unexpected. Genuinely unpredictable. And that is why I think it's brilliant. I don't think it's violence for violence's sake. It's not like Saw: The Musical. It's so hard in the indie music world to be to be shocking nowadays. All forms of media are utilised to supplement an artists music, every conceivable issue is being covered and the lines between genres are crumbling constantly.Innovation is everywhere, and that is awesome, but it's hard to be shocking and to make your innovation stand out against everyone else's. Also, I think its explicit and "excessive" (is it really?) content are a mockery and subversion of most rap videos nowadays- overtly sexual and gun toting but meaning absolutely nothing.
MIA has managed to do something totally attention grabbing. She's made a bold a clear statement about discrimination, oppression, US supremacy, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland and countless other racial conflicts. Those issues are talked about so much nowadays, in the media and in music, that we grow numb to them. And yet, paradoxically, we really have no clue of the atrocities Western Nations, the ones presented as "the good guys" and guilty of. MIA has thrown those ideas back into the frame, through her art. Sonically, the song reflects the graphic nature of the issues presented, and I genuinely enjoy listening to it. The lyrics are simple yet brilliant too, a defiant protest about every person's inherent right to be free.
I've seen today that an anti-bullying charity has slammed MIA for promoting discrimination against gingers:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Showbiz-News/MIA-Ginger-Genocide-Music-Video-Born-Free-Slammed-By-Bullying-Charity-Defended-By-Actor/Article/201005115623553?f=rss
But they are totally wrong. This video is showing us in a raw and graphic way that discrimination, violence and torture still exist in our world. On a grand scale- like the US invasion of Iraq- and on smallar scales- like bullying. Born Free, both video and song, is a brilliant piece of 21st century political protest art.
But perhaps you disagree. Watch the video and feed back to me.
Is it just violence for violence's sake? Is showing a twelve year old being shot in the head really an honest form of political protest?
i saw this a couple of days ago and i agree that it is making a bold political statement. I do really don't like how graphic the video is I think a far greater political protest could have been made if it was not now restricted to just over eighteen year olds. If MIA wanted to make a statement about discrimination then she needs to reach the younger generation as they are the ones which will truly affect change. I do however respect the inovation as music should be promoting a relative approach where people can make their own minds on their likes and dislikes. It is now too late to take it back so I think the industry should just move on from it and hopefully it will increase the ammount of unique bands, genres and promoting that'll keep music fresh
ReplyDeleteWell she didn't decide to make it available to only over-18s, and on her twitter she was really pissed off about how it was being censored (which kinda proves my point about us not being allowed to know what Western Nations get up to) But I think as far as political music this century goes, this is up there. I find it inspiring personally.
ReplyDeleteFrom a Christian perspective, I was thinking that it is justified as Jesus went through the most physically brutal, violent and bloody death, as well as untold emotional and spiritual pain, to defeat our sin, and to show how serious it is. Not to paint her as a Christ like figure, but she's using violence to highlight big problems as well.
Yeah but she couldn't have thought it appropriate for a ten year old to watch that. I think it will go down as one of the big events of music video history alongside thriller by Jacko, hurt by Johnny cash and others alongside the rap videos that have portrayed thinks that people didn't realise the younger children were doing sex, drugs and violence
ReplyDeleteI wasn't saying she thinks ten year olds should watch it, in order to know how the world is. The kid who got shot hasn't even seen the video. I just reckon she knows that there are sensible and informed 16 and 17 year olds, such as myself, who should be able to watch it (which to be fair, we can because it's on vimeo and her website still. Maybe YouTube's being controlled by "the man" now? Oooo provocative!). But yeah. A landmark video for sure!
ReplyDeleteyeah but if she was doing it to change things then it won't have as much effect as she is alienating a potential audience by making it so violent. Yeah it kind of is run by the man but it is over run by the avaliablity of the internet for people to see anything whatever age. but i agree that an age limit should be set for the video
ReplyDelete