Rapper who flipped off Super Bowl viewers re-releases explicit video

posted at 12:46 pm on February 7, 2012 by

Well, that didn’t take long. The day after she made headlines by flipping the bird to an estimated 111.3 million viewers who tuned in to Super Bowl XLVI, “artist” M.I.A. re-released an anti-American music video that had been previously banned by YouTube.

The content, which includes full frontal nudity, violence, and crack-pipe smoking, shows members of the U.S. military rounding up and summarily executing redheaded males. The title, Born Free, is presumably meant to shed light on the video’s elusive “message.” Suffice it to say that even the seemingly sympathetic Huffington Post is unsure of what the video is meant to communicate, speculating that it might be

a comment on the absurdity of genocide (of which MIA saw plenty during her early childhood in Sri Lanka) or a challenge to the idea of ‘other’ in Arizona’s immigration law.

Craig Bannister of CNSNews.com detects a point of irony in the video, writing that “M.I.A. has actually spoken out [against] ‘American kids seeing violence on their computer screens’,” while having no qualms about showing “a U.S. soldier putting a gun to the head of a child and blowing his brains out.”

In any case, the entire episode, beginning with the obscene halftime gesture, is nothing more than a blatant attempt to get talked and written about—to promote the performer’s brand. Isn’t that the sort of crass commercialism that people who pretend to lofty social agenda are supposed to inveigh against?

Related Articles

Follow me on Twitter or join me at Facebook. You can reach me at howard.portnoy@gmail.com or by posting a comment below.

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Trackbacks/Pings

Trackback URL

Comments

Wonder if this rapper will be guest of honor at the next wh party by bho and mo?
L

letget on February 7, 2012 at 12:58 PM

is nothing more than a blatant effort to get talked and written about—

So, rewarding her is the answer?

cozmo on February 7, 2012 at 1:03 PM

Ignore everything about this woman and she will go away.

What we don’t need are the interviews on Fox News and outrage at every conservative website.

NoDonkey on February 7, 2012 at 1:45 PM

Why even give publicity to this souless skank. The less said……!!!

wtng2fish on February 7, 2012 at 1:56 PM

Those damn youths and their crazy rebellious music! Free Speech be damned!

jayhawkboilermaker on February 7, 2012 at 3:19 PM

Suffice it to say that even the seemingly sympathetic Huffington Post is unsure of what the video is meant to communicate

Well, it seems pretty obvious to me.

First, fat people shouldn’t be allowed to have sex. Clearly this isn’t the main point of the video, but the artist felt strongly enough about it to put that message upfront in the video to make sure more people saw it.

Second, the media has been too harsh on Lindsey Lohan. The media and the country need to lighten up on the freckled, redheaded girl. She’s had enough blowups and beatdowns to last a life time. We should pick on someone else for a while.

On a more serious note, NBC and the NFL deserve every penny of any and all penalties they end up having to pay regarding the halftime incident if they were/are that dumb to have not properly screened the performers. Or, if they were aware of the background and went ahead anyway without including a clause in the contracts that the individual artists would be responsible for any fines incurred for inappropriate behavior on live television (with all its well known rules) then they are beyond incompetent and all fines should be doubled.

parke on February 7, 2012 at 4:14 PM

N.W.A.’s halftime show was much worse than this, what is everyone complaining about?

NoDonkey on February 7, 2012 at 4:21 PM

Madonna, f*g hag in chief, and her ghey entourage was bad enough, but who approved this talentless attention wh*re performing at the SuperBowl?

Blake on February 7, 2012 at 5:40 PM

We checked out M.I.A. at Coachella Music Festival a few years ago. We walked away after about ten minutes.

The DJ was stupid and the act was lame.

MichaelGabriel on February 7, 2012 at 6:14 PM

I’m not sure Tamils would like her to do the PR for their struggle.

lexhamfox on February 7, 2012 at 8:23 PM

MIA is a POS.

tom daschle concerned on February 7, 2012 at 8:56 PM

As a ginger I have a love for Born Free that is entirely at odds with the music (which frankly doesn’t quite reach the level of ‘a song’ to me…) or the various messages purported.

SpikeRHSC on February 8, 2012 at 12:55 AM

Is it really true that all bad cops are White? Those racist Ba$tards. I’ve seen the videos, African troops treating their children so well in the middle of a civil war, The Mexican Drug Cartels generously giving charity for those too poor to sneak into the USA, and the Middle- Eastern Church that still stones their own people (not talking about their drug trade), and China allowing free access to the internet, they’ve only arrested a few hundred.

From my POV, American Bandstand Style, it was hard to listen to and not easy for dancing. I give it a 34.

The headline should have said “Immigrant Hip Hop singer(?)shows how she feels about 111.3 million people in the USA”.

Sabercat2 on February 8, 2012 at 10:00 AM

M.I.A isnt a rapper. She’s a pop singer. I guess calling her a rapper gets you more click bait though.

#fail

Politricks on February 8, 2012 at 8:05 PM

Looks like she should be up for the Nobel Peace Prize and Wikileaks Heroine of the Year for exposing the vicious American storm troopers. Couldn’t stand watching it to the end- did She get in a dig at Bush? Seriously, I hope her check bounces and that it cost her tons of money to rehearse and appear. The headliner (the less than divine M) was way to chubby for the clothes she almost wore and the dancing she attempted to do. Maybe she could sing at one time but not anymore.

Bernfp on February 8, 2012 at 9:35 PM