Uncomfortable silences. Why do we feel it's necessary to yak about bullshit in order to be comfortable? M.I.A. More Quotes by M.I.A. More Quotes From M.I.A. I'd be very controversial if I said why, and I don't do controversial anymore. That's too passé. So last year. Being controversial is boring now. M.I.A. controversialboring We know that those huge U.S. brands do have political sway. M.I.A. brandspoliticalknows I don't really see a difference in independent and major labels. To me, it's pretty much the same. There used to be a difference between indies and major labels, but I don't think there is anymore. M.I.A. independentdifferencesthinking What really drives me mad about art is that, in America, the only thing you can do is to take it apart. M.I.A. madamericaart I named my first album after my dad because I wanted to find him. My second album was named after my mom because I felt like I learned all my creative talents I learned from her. M.I.A. dadmomcreative If you narrow the playing field, the next generation has less to put out, to eat and regenerate from. M.I.A. nextgenerationsfields That's what's inspiring to me - finding someplace where people haven't already seen themselves in a certain light. M.I.A. certainlightpeople The consequence of making it a business thing and making an artist the same as a Wall Street trader is that you do get a robot by the end of it. It becomes more robotic as opposed to being more soulful. M.I.A. robotswallartist That's what New York is like - you can't have real art happen in an institution because rich people can make the world stop. The stuff on the street is a lot more interesting. M.I.A. realnew-yorkart There's a bit of hope that a song can be about anything. If you want to write a song about anything, you can, and you don't have to put it through the process of having it be trendy or cool or generic pop or these types. M.I.A. wantwritingsong In the beginning [of my career] I definitely felt a responsibility because I was representing a bunch of people [Sri lankans] who never got represented before. I felt this responsibility to correct that situation, to be like, "Look, you can't discriminate against refugees and Muslim people and blah, blah, blah . . ." M.I.A. careersresponsibilitypeople I've documented a lot of things myself as a filmmaker. If you want a rockumentary, that's in there. M.I.A. filmmakerifswant I never pigeonholed myself - the only reason you'd want to pigeonhole is to monetize your business and, as a person, I don't see the importance of doing that. My music took off above the rest of those things: You can just make a song, put it on a CD, and get it out to all these people. M.I.A. cdssongpeople By the time it came to the 90s, the late 90s, being a businessman was the beacon to uphold. We've been having the concept of the best rapper equals the best businessman. M.I.A. beaconsrapperlate There has been an effect of business rap on the output of today's rap music. But I don't think that's the modern day rapper's fault. M.I.A. raptodaythinking Businessmen in society are not going to be the ones that promote anything outside of money. M.I.A. businessman When I came to England in '86, my first week of school was terrible because I would put my hand up to answer things, and no one would choose me because they couldn't say my name. M.I.A. nameshandsschool I think people were genuinely addicted to hip hop in the 90s, addicted to the idea of empowerment. I think it came from [the fact that] the rappers in the 90s, their parents coming from the 70s, had such a rich variety of records to sample. M.I.A. rapperideasthinking You can't turn up at college in stilettos and say you're gonna be a filmmaker. In the college, they were teaching me avant-garde filmmaking, where I had to make films that were, like, an hour long about nothing. I just refused to do it. M.I.A. collegeteachinglong It could be the sort of declining grip of the American MTV-nation culture-the fact that MTV doesn't play so much music anymore. M.I.A. mtvplayculture
