Featuring special collaborations from Skrillex, Blaqstarr, and Troy Baker, M.I.A. released a 16-track mixtape for the holiday season, Pitchfork reports.
In a press release from the British musician, born Mathangi Arulpragasam “I present you a gift from the East, star of wonder star of night.” “Beauty. Bright. Sacred. Cosmic. Magnetism. A collaboration with God.”
Best known for her 2005 breakout LP Arular, that launched her into music stardom as a rebelious rapper, M.I.A’s sound has been heavily guided by her Tamil heritage and her personal beliefs about politics, revolution, and spirituality.
Infamous for being fined by the NFL after giving the finger to her audience during her guest appearance at Madonna’s Superbowl Halftime show, this is the second release from the rapper who’s beginning a new spiritual journey as a Christian. In her Apple Music 1 interview with Zane Lowe, the musician said “I had a vision and I saw the vision of Jesus Christ.” “It’s very, creatively, it’s a very crazy thing because it turned my world upside down. Because everything I thought and believed was no longer, like, the case.”
The new mixtape comes after M.I.A claimed that she was going to retire after her 2016 AIM full length, stating “I want to [retire], and I have said I am. And, yes, that is as much as I have to say,” she told Rolling Stone in 2018. “And it’s time for new people to come through, but that’s very difficult. It’s a very difficult thing. Because actually I think it’s harder now than it was for me 15 years ago, which is crazy. It’s really nuts.”
FYI – The new collection can only be heard through MIA‘s website, ohmni.com.
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: Raph_PH