Rapper M.I.A.’s new album is out today. Is her use of controversy legitimate or just a clever marketing ploy?

Does she actually think she's all "STREET" ? She's just another lame hip-hop singer song-writer wanna be musician that will be forgotten a year from now like Lady gaga and all of their idiotic ilk. She clearly doesn't stand the test of time and yawwwn moving on to the next moron that comes around the block.

I'm kind of mad at MIA right now. She canceled a music festival I was supposed to go to yesterday. She announced it last Tuesday. I wonder if that had anything to do with the fact that her record was released last Tuesday.... More MIA news in your Google Readers means more people thinking about buying her album?

I will no longer support MIA.

Theres also the whole Hard LA fiasco...http://mog.com/blog_post/content/3127/2132853

again the american way of BS: southpark and gingers is ok - because its just a cartoon....but real people...nooooooo, waaaay to hard.....Seriously? Oo anyway...great message but the "music" in the video sucks....

Of course it is understandable that she tries to provoke with her art but as provoking as it may be I'm not going to listen if the music sucks. And as cool as Born Free was to look at, the song sucked.

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I dunno ask Steven Jobs if the "iPhone Left in the Bar" marketing campaign was a legitimate use of controversy.

Stupid shit sells.

Who did what now?

She seems pretty rad, as long as she keeps making music that is better than most of the junk on the radio, I'll listen. To me, it doesn't matter what they do, as long as they have something worth while to say and write about.

Yawn... she's dull

I feel that her controversy is part of what makes her an artist. Art is meant to provoke.

I really don't understand what's so controversial about her. I mean "Born Free" was a really strange video and a bit disturbing, nothing you don't hear about or see on primetime news.

Well, I just saw the video.

Not gonna lie—the first words to come out of my mouth once the video ended were "Holy SHIT."

I'll take this over Jason Derulo and Drake ANY day.

I think the video might have been more poignant before the infamous South Park ginger episode. Now, the sight of red-heads getting rounded up is just too comedic to make me think about any sort of injustice being done. Maybe that was the point?

Every album released under a major record label involves some sort of marketing ploy. This isn't open mic at a cafe, it's a multi-billion dollar industry.

The truffle french fry incident is kinda funny, but you can't blame MIA, she got screwed by the NYT Magazine journalist.

um...most artists use controversy to promote their albums. not that big of a deal really. And on a personal note, I'd prefer to see controversial things like MIA's "Born Free" video than a "controversial" sex tape with Paris Hilton or whoever the Hollywood slut is, at least I'm getting a real message from MIA. I take nothing away from a sex tape, if anything I lose something!

none of us should hate her but rather detest what this artist is doing. Turning rage into fashion has been a symptom of the death of all social movements in the face of consumerism. Its like everyone wants to look like a revolutionary and listen to music made by people who act like revolutionaries but none of us want to do the dirty work so we choose to shop instead. Rage is chic now and it makes me just a tad bit more cynical...

it's a decent plot based around the aspects of a false freedom.a plot of irony, a banned video in the home of the free and the brave. i like it.

Is this a legitimate question? Come on. It's a plot.

yawn...

I really love her albums Kala and Galang but for some reason her new album seems a bit too pushed, as if she can't just let the music be enough to draw people in.

She has controversy? She's considered a rapper? She did something else other than Slum Dog?