Kala

"Kala" opens with the uninvitingly spare “Bamboo Banga”, which samples Indian Tamil filmi composer Ilayaraja and bends the lyric of The Modern Lovers “Roadrunner”. The song celebrates a kid running alongside a Third World tourist’s Hummer and banging on its door. Read more on Last.fm.

Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam also known as M.I.A., (born 18 July 1975 in Hounslow, London, U.K.) is a British artist of Sri Lankan Tamil descent. As a baby she moved with her family to their native Sri Lanka, where her father became increasingly politically active in militant activities. As the Civil War escalated the rest of the family was forced to flee as refugees, first to India and then the UK. “M.I.A.” [“Missing In Action”] references both her London neighborhood (Acton) and her politically tumultuous youth. Her style contains elements of hip-hop, reggae, alternative, dance hall, electro and baile funk and is strongly inspired by her Sri Lankan background. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.