M.I.A. talks about the industry right now, Lady Gaga, Kesha and the new musical underground

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 4/14/10 at 4:25pm

What do you think of The X Factor [British equivalent of American Idol]?
Oh God, I’m so bored by it already, people need to get over it. X Factor ****’s irrelevant. I’m more concerned by how someone like Kesha can so blatantly copy Uffie. Everyone’s fine with it. Not a ****ing lawsuit in sight.

How do you think you’d have fared on the show?
I would totally flop. Are you serious?! I’m not a ‘showbiz’ person. I got signed and made an album without playing a show. I scouted four different people to sing ‘Galang’ before I put it out as my own demo.

Do you think those programmes and the internet have destroyed the mythology around popstars?
I don’t know. Again, there’d Lady Gaga - people say we’re similar, that we both mix all these things in the pot and spit them out differently, but she spits it out exactly the same! None of her music’s reflective of how weird she wants to be or thinks she is. She models herself on Grace Jones and Madonna, but the music sounds like 20-year-old Ibiza music, you know? She’s not progressive, but she’s a good mimic. She sounds more like me than I ****ing do! That’s a talent and she’s got a great team behind her, but she’s the industry last’s stab at making itself important - saying, ‘You need our money behind you, the endorsements, the stadiums’ Respect to her, she’s keeping a hundred thousand people in work, but my belief is: Do It Yourself.

What’s more important to you - performing live or making records?
Making records is my art, but if you’re an artist, questioning a lot of things it’s important to have that live space what you do isn’t gonna be twisted and manipulated.

How important are image and visuals to your music?
Very. But it’s not like “Haus of Gaga” (laughs). Me blindfolded with naked men feeding me apples and ****.
M.I.A. interview