M.I.A. has finally returned to music with “OHMNI W202091”. The track is the rapper’s latest offering since the release of AIM in 2016, which is available for streaming on her Patreon here.
“People be sleeping on me so much I feel like a mattress.” The English-Sri Lankan artist reclaims her throne in the very first line of the track, and it is such an exhilarating banger to listen to in the midst of the tedious social-distancing period.
“OHMNI W202091” is a perfect return to form for the M.I.A. that made us intrigued with her music at the beginning. The song is infused with the rapper’s renowned signatures: complaining-rapping styles, attacking hip-hop beats, and distorted electronic sound, not to mention such sassy and empowering lyrics.
About the track, the 44-year-old musician intended to drop it as a celebration of the 15th anniversary of her 2005’s debut album Arular. “Happy Arular release day!!,” wrote M.I.A. on her Instagram post on the arrival of the track. See the post, which contains the single art by IKHYD2020 and complete lyrics, below.
Elsewhere on the latest single and upcoming new music, Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam (what a beautiful name!) launched a brand new channel to allow her fans get access to her music and creations on Patreon back in January. According to NME, the “Paper Planes” hitmaker said that Patreon is her new approach in music, which she planned to use as a platform to release “a new record and other creative projects”.
She also shared with Rolling Stones that Patreon allows her to “make so much stuff and record so many things that aren’t music and don’t fit on other platforms”. “I’ve tried all the other platforms and it’s like: this one is too mean and hateful, this one is too fake and self-obsessed, and this one just sells all your data to Cambridge Analytica… Hopefully, this one is going to be just right,” said M.I.A.
Patreon is an American-based membership platform that operates like a crowdfunding. The site has increasingly gained more popularity amongst content creators (i.e. YouTubers, podcasters, and other creative earners), but it has not been quite favoured for musicians.
For the M.I.A. page on the site, the “Bad Girls” rapper gives her subscribers with two options: a $5 (Arular) tier and a $10 (Kala) tier. In addition, the subscriptions will also provide access to unreleased footage from M.I.A.’s documentary, MATANGA/MAYA/M.I.A., together with exclusive art, livestream archives, fan forums, and video diaries. There’s more: those who subscribe to the Kala tier will get to join the rapper in a Q&A session every month and an on-time livestream, along with early access to her exclusive content.
She also promised that her sixth studio album, rumoured to be called Vision, will be dropped within this year. Despite her focus on giving off her stuff on Patreon, she said that the forthcoming LP will be released via a normal record label like her previous albums.
