“Live fast, die young, bad girls do it well.”
Why MIA?
MIA is chaos with intent. A genre-hacker, visual artist, and political agitator, she’s never been easy to categorize — and that’s the point. Her work doesn’t follow trends; it exposes systems.
Origin Story
Born Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam in London, raised in Sri Lanka during civil war, MIA’s upbringing was shaped by displacement, surveillance, and propaganda. She studied visual arts before turning to music, where she fused her background into an unmistakable aesthetic.
Signature Style
Her sound blends hip hop, dancehall, grime, electro, and global street noise. It’s raw, rhythmic, and disruptive. She writes hooks like slogans, and her beats feel like protest chants turned club bangers.
Beyond the Music
- Visual Artist First
Designed her own covers, directed videos, and approaches music as a full sensory project. - Political Provocateur
Critiques immigration policy, war, and surveillance capitalism. - Fearless on Stage and Off
Famously flipped the bird during the Super Bowl halftime show — and paid for it. - Filmmaker
Subject of the doc Matangi/Maya/MIA, showing her journey from refugee to icon.
Why PD Loves MIA
She’s a cultural disrupter. MIA blends message and medium with surgical precision — a reminder that art can provoke, educate, and still slap. Intelligence + Awareness? Her entire career is that formula.
Keep your fame and I’ll keep my faith
(Oh yeah you can keep it)
Store my name, say my name
Know my name, and I’ll keep my faith
(I’m gonna keep it)
Light it up, turn em on
That’s when my powers gone
(gonna keep it)
I take em off, turn em off, and my powers on
Bad girls do it well
Live fast, die young
Bad girls do it well
My chain hits my chest
When I’m banging on the dashboard
My chain hits my chest
When I’m banging on the radio
Goddess of word, bitches I’m a keep it banging
Truth is like a rotten tooth, you gotta spit it out!
Let the bottom two, let my wisdom work it out
Big on the underground, can’t knock me down
Vicki Leekx bitches, better buy it on demand
I sleep on my tongue and I stand by it to
I can say lots with a little words or few like
Adam had ’em yeh meed the madame
I’ll introduce you to the…
Come let me go, do you like my perfume?
Made it at home with some gasoline and ‘shrooms
