M.I.A.

This 36-minute mixtape, released for freebie download on New Year’s Eve, proves that the industrial-noise diddling of M.I.A.’s 2010 album, Maya, was no fluke. The Sri Lankan rapper still avoids anything as pop-friendly as her 2008 hit ”˜Paper Planes,’ going instead for the agitprop electro-bleep high jinks that made Maya such a polarising (yet rewarding) album. With production from her usual cohorts (Diplo, Blaqstarr, Switch, Rusko), Vicki Leekx has playful snippets like ”˜Marsha/Britney’ and the romantic ”˜Let Me Hump You.’ But ”˜Bad Girls’ is her most undeniable tune in years, with Bollywood beats, scratchy synth strings and M.I.A. chanting, “Live fast, die young/Bad girls do
it well.”

Key Tracks: “Bad Girls,” “Marsha/Britney,” “Let Me Hump You”