Let's all take a lunch break and read this very long, but comprehensive and important, look at rapper/activist/annoyance MIA. It will better help us all prepare for the real war: trying to discern the music she means, and the actions she uses to simply antagonize the consumer.
Already takes the snark I crave on the first page (of nine, be warned): "In one of many contradictions that seem to provide the narrative for Maya's life and art, Ikhyd was not, as she had repeatedly announced he would be, born at home in a pool of water. As usual, she wanted to transform her personal life into a political statement. "You gotta embrace the pain, embrace the struggle," she proclaimed weeks before Ikhyd was born. "And my giving birth is nothing when I think about all the people in Sri Lanka that have to give birth in a concentration camp."
The article goes in depth, from her early work to her relationship with Ben Bronfman, all the way to her controversial Roman Garvas directed music video, which NY Times calls "hollow". What a great adjective.
UPDATE 12:16 PM: Pitchfork, who just might take up the majority of MIA's backside with their mouth-holes, want to make sure everyone knows she got her revenge by posting the phone number of Lynne Hirschberg (author of the piece) on her Twitter. They did get one thing right: "Ouch".