Not to be outdone by Erykah Badu, Lady Gaga & Beyoncé, M.I.A.’s new video (below) is much more provocative short film than music video. And while it’s stylishly and cleverly shot  it is – in my opinion – a little short on real finesse. When I first heard about M.I.A. back in 2004 or whenever, I was intrigued; the general indy press buzz and her first releases offered hope of some really creative sounds, paired with a meaningful message. I have to confess that the intrigue wore off fairly quickly. Her limited vocal stylings and the slightly under-inspired remix-rather-than-mashup sounds bothered me less than her seemingly somewhat contrived political posturing. I don’t mind when music comes with a story: I mean, what would blues be without the story? Or jazz, or reggae? But although I don’t question the truth of her personal story, I question the genuineness of how much she cares about the plight of her country. Mostly because she seems pretty at home making a lot of money and being a pop star in the country that arguably caused it. I do on the other hand have to give her a lot of credit for being a sharp business person and pop media manipulation artist. Which makes her latest video kind of “meta”, and ironic. In case you haven’t seen it, I won’t offer up any spoilers. But I will say that much like the way the rest of her work draws much more attention to her as a person than to Sri Lanka’s problems, the new video is getting more attention than the message it seems to try to deliver. Video below.

Warning: The video contains nudity and very graphic violence

And if you can still manage a sense of humor after watching it, seems to have some connection with this: