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'Boyz' - like most of M.I.A.'s sonic output - should never have worked. Like a musical Jackson Pollock painting, or even one of Mathangi Arulpragasam's own outfits, it took utterly disparate elements and yoked them together with impossible violence. On paper, it was commercial suicide; in reality, it was a triumph. Over looped childish chanting, carnival shrieks, unstoppable horns, mercurial be...
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Maximalism ruled the dance floor in 2007, and M.I.A.'s global beat-grafting led the charge.
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An anti-patriarchy song that doubles as a flirt; a political song that doubles as a dancing-and-drinking song; yet another song where M.I.A. tries to mash up the entire Third World at once-- soca synths, Indian drumming, dancehall patois-- and pretty much succeeds. (There's a cheering crowd deep in the mix to vouch for her.) "Boyz" is stuffed with clever gestures, starting with the chorus' scuf...
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A dutty-rock jam about riding with your girls, calling out the dude version of "How many ladies in the house?" Except M.I.A. turns those shout-outs into a global-capitalism survey: "How many no-money boys are crazy . . . how many start a war?
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Monkey see, monkey do: That's pretty much sums up the superpower for one of the newest characters in NBC's prime-time hit 'Heroes' -- Monica is a muscle mimicker. If you suddenly had the ability to imitate any movement in the world, would you pick a normal playground activity? Probably not. But she did! So how do you amp up a scene that has the potential to flop? You compliment it with a song. ...
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Every so often, the blogs get one right. Also, boasts visual effects by Strong Bad.
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The female answer to Dizzee, uniquely innovative slow-motion explosion in UK urban music who continues to blow the competition away. This new single from her second album is already uniting the global bootie scenes in a big way.
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Those who loved the genre-smashing Sri Lankan hipster's 2005 debut are sure to go wild for her latest single, which weaves rhythmic chants, thumping beats, and festive cheers.
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“Boyz,” which has been around for a while now and is as big an anthem as “Galang” except this should have been released two months ago so the hipster girls could be requesting this from DJs at house parties all summer. I just don’t know if September/October/November can hold a song so big.
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Look at that outfit and imagine it translated into sound: That's the latest mind-bender from Ms. Arulpragasam - covertly political and totally bizzonkers.
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Head spinning dancehall and a teaser for Maya Arulpragasm's second album Kala, released next month. Named after her mother, it's the follow up to 2005's Mercury Prize-nominated Arular, named, inevitably, after dad.
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Given that it's been knocking around for a while and MIA is one of the most blogged-about artists this side of Arcade Fire there isn't a huge amount left to say about 'Boyz', but it hasn't been Song Of The Day yet so we thought it was about time.
It's still very good.
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The fierce tribal drums and the sound of a full-on carnival in the background more than blow away any player-hating doubts.
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As for the track itself, a baile-funk-esque affair, it stutters into life with an inane cry of "na na na na na na!" and continues on with a catchy character assassination of Boyz who are raw and crazy and start wars.
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It all comes together on the video, which has a visual aesthetic that borrows equally from the early days of MTV, Keith Haring’s simple Day-Glo vision of New York, and extravagant Bollywood productions.
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Miss Arulpragasam returns after having raided the Photoshop color palette pantry with a busy-bright and epileptically challenging clip for the quirk-sampled bhangra-banger "Boyz" -- the third track we've heard from Kala -- shot in Jamaica with the help of a limber danceline and lots o' special fx.
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If that ugly London Olympics logo caused epileptic seizures, this exploding-Atari extravaganza from M.I.A. may be problematic for certain viewers. But, for the less seizure-prone, its never-ending mash-up of bright colors, bright clothing (tiger-striped overalls!) and bright pixels actually bumps the song's globo-funk up a notch.
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“Boyz” is a similar manifestation of the early '90s hip-hop mentality, depicting M.I.A. and her male collective dancing in the forefront while crayon colored patterns bounce around the screen.The song, like the video’s bright, childlike aesthetic, is animated and, simply put, fun.
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In the photos, Jay Will, director of Voice Mail's plainly entertaining "Get Crazy," had Maya in front of a plain wall with a bunch of dudes, so there wasn't too much else to say. Well, that wall was a greenscreen and Maya touched it up in the edit suite. And now "Boyz" is totally insane. Also, we have dance moves for the next 8,000 years.
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On "Boyz", M.I.A. again just wants to have fun. She's got the right beat for it, anyway. The kind of fractured, horn-accented loop you might hear in a favela-- or, I dunno, Philly-- sets a fiesta-friendly mood, while M.I.A. na-na-nas catchily. "How many boyz there?" she repeats, before adding a perfunctory "How many start a war?" as if to remind you, she's the revolutionary M.I.A.
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She likes the boys who fall over when they dance, she likes the ones who act a bit mad cos they're over-compensating for not having any cash, she likes the ones who drive motorbikes and she likes the ones who can cook chicken on a wall.
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"Boyz" (XL) is a timely reminder that her swagger and inventiveness is pretty much without parallel in British music right now.
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It's part reggae dance-off, part hip-hop banger, part we-have-no-idea--and it adds up to a global summer party-starter that defies category, border and language.
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Yesterday, BBC deejay Zane Lowe premiered "Boyz," a new song off MIA's forthcoming album, Kala. Na na na na na, na, na na. Hey now!
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