In November, M.I.A. released what may be her most moving music video yet on Apple Music.The video made “Best of 2015” lists, including The New York Times, Time, Pitchfork and The Fader. Now for the first time, the video can be viewed on Vevo.
With the combination of Lyrics about Justice and World Peace and pop-culture references such as “Bae” and talk of technology, M.I.A. really knows how to get a message to a demographic of people who have the capability to be world changers and more importantly an age group that has the recourses to spread the message.
Her new self-directed video features what appears to be a reenactment of the immigration border crisis in Europe. It shows the artist herself riding on a less than stable looking raft with hundreds of refugees as well as some cuts to a scene of miserable looking people marching towards a gate that is seemingly impossible to climb, yet they try anyway.
Her label spoke a little about the upcoming album that will feature the song Borders along with her most recent single Swords that was released in July. “a truly global and characteristically DIY MIA project. The two pieces will ultimately come together in a larger body of work that explores the concept of Borders, an element of which will be a full-length album and film experience entitled Matahdatah.” M.I.A. has been known for breaking down borders in her own way musically and never being afraid to do things that might get her in trouble.
M.I.A. Has had a history of speaking about what Justice and world peace, and her label reports that this one will be carefully themed around matters important to her in a whole new way. “The world I talked about 10 years ago is still the same,” she recently posted on Twitter. “That’s why it’s hard for me to say it again on a new LP.” Yet even, with that difficulty, M.I.A. is able to bring to light issues that many artists are simply unable to.
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