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Eddy Says
Eddy Says: What a cool suit the emperor is wearing
By Eddy Temple-Morris | Published on Monday 17 May 2010
I remember when MIA came on The Remix years ago, around the time of her first single ‘Galang’, a real ‘London street’ record, ironically produced by a member of Pulp, probably in Sheffield. She was undeniably gorgeous, and there was a sharp sassiness about her, which was born of massive confidence, almost bordering on arrogance.
I recall playing ‘And Down’ by Jacques Lu Conte, from the ‘Two Culture Clash’ record on Wall Of Sound (which, looking back, ended up as the precursor to the Major Lazer album) and marvelling at how Stuart Price (aka Jacques) had successfully blended acid with dancehall. MIA was, like, ‘I done that ages ago’, her eyes rolling ceiling-ward slightly…
She was extremely wrapped up in her coolness, and wanted everyone around her to know that she was an envelope pusher, a maverick, a style leader, not a follower. I did have a feeling that a few of us were lighting her touch paper and retiring to a safe distance.
So, fast forward several years, and I hear there’s a new MIA record that people are getting excited about. In fact, John Kennedy played it on Xfm before I’d managed to get my hands on a copy, and I got an excited text from an old friend with great taste in music blurting out: “OMG – have U heard that MIA tune – I NEED IT!” This had me excited.
At the first opportunity I went through my post bag and, sure enough, there was the promo, from XL, of ‘Born Free’. By this time I’d read about the “amazing video” featuring exploding ginger people. I was well up for this.
When I put it on, I thought there must be some mistake. Why would my great-taste-mate be so into this? I just heard a seminal tune by Suicide, with MIA kinda shouting, or nonchalantly talking over the top of it. It was a ham-fisted MC mixtape talk-over. Blimey, even Dizzee makes his samples his own somehow, puts a little bit of songwriting effort in, but this…? It struck me as incredibly lazy. Like Tinchy Stryder, no effort, nothing big, or clever, just talking over someone else’s record, plain and simple.
OK, Tinchy would never pick a record as cool as ‘Frankie Teardrop’ but the point still stands. So, I start asking around, and it seems this record has sliced everyone down the middle. Half of my mates are enthusing: “Yeah this is really cool” and the other half are ranting: “What the FUCK?! Rip-off alert!” Or, in the words of the marvellous DJ Wrongtom: “That MIA track sounds like it should’ve been bottom of the bill at the Phoenix Festival the year ‘Maxinquaye’ came out”.
When I played it on Xfm for the first time, I saw the same polarised reactions. I saw a text from a seventeen year old, saying: “This is GREAT! What is it??!!” through to one, from somebody old enough to be that seventeen year old’s parent, saying: “Play the original – this is shit”. Predictable, but the most interesting thing for me is that the seventeen year old had no idea that MIA hadn’t made this track. She’d certainly never heard of Suicide, Alan Vega or Martin Rev, and assumed this was a MIA original.
Now, there is no way that MIA is actually nicking this track, there will have been a pain-staking clearance process undertaken, and Messrs Vega and Rev will undoubtedly be recompensed for having their track used. I’m positive MIA would not ‘do a Coco Sumner’ and try to pass off somebody else’s song as her own, as Coco did with ‘Ceasar’ (more on that in this Eddy Says here).
BUT, if I was talking over somebody else’s track, I’d go to greater lengths to make damn sure everybody, especially those seventeen year olds with no reference points to draw on, knew that is was somebody else’s song. I’d have called it MIA Vs Suicide, and physically thrown people towards that incredible, trailblazing record.
One person out there who, like myself, always calls a spade a spade, and doesn’t give a fuck what anybody thinks, or for the consequences of such painful honesty, is Paul ‘El Hornet’ Harding from Pendulum. I remember dubstep DJ Plastician saying, quite rightly, “Paul ALWAYS says EXACTLY what he thinks on Twitter and doesn’t give a damn”. And that that is “SO GANGSTA!”
So, what does Paul think about the MIA single? What does this one person with nothing to lose or nothing to gain from his honesty think about this very interesting and divisive record? I’ll tell you:
Tweet 1, straight back after I’d compared Miss Arulpragasam to Mr Stryder:
“Video amazing. Talentless shouting, not so good”.
I laughed like a drain. And was really quite relieved that it wasn’t just me. I tweeted him straight back, which led to tweet 2:
“It’s like the girl at my local Carphone Warehouse got a record deal!”
Ever since that tweet, I can’t listen to ‘Born Free’ without laughing. OK MIA, you are gorgeous, and cool, and you’ve been out with Diplo, and been the toast of NYC, but on THIS particular record, you’ve been busted by an Australian DJ which, in my experience, is the closest thing you can get to a piece of litmus paper, in human form. You DO sound like a girl from Carphone Warehouse talking over a very cool record.
When teachers put “could do better” on your homework, it’s because they are intelligent enough to know that you’re not trying your best, or that you’re just not trying. That your potential is, on that evidence and no other, unrealised. They know you are capable of something brilliant, but this isn’t it. I bet MIA saw that phrase a lot on her report card… I know I did.
eddy X
Eddy Says from this edition of the CMU Remix Update.
