MATHANGI ‘Maya’ Arulpragasam, known professionally as M.I.A., is a British rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and activist whose music combines elements of alternative, dance, electronic, hip hop and world music with electronic instruments and samples.
In 2008, M.I.A.’s ‘Paper Planes’ became one of the biggest songs of her career after starting from a personal experience with immigration and life in New York.
The hit song reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was later ranked No. 46 on Rolling Stone’s ‘The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time’.
‘Paper Planes’ appeared on M.I.A.’s second studio album, Kala, which was released in 2007. It became her first major hit in North America as a lead artist and earned a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year.
Rolling Stone included the song at No. 46 on its list of the greatest songs of all time.
But do the fans know that M.I.A. wrote ‘Paper Planes’ while she was living in Brooklyn?
The London-born Sri Lankan pop singer lived in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood from 2006 to 2008. It was during this period that the ideas behind ‘Paper Planes’ came together.
According to Songfacts, the song was inspired in part by her problems getting a U.S. work visa. M.I.A. was born in England to Sri Lankan Tamil parents and spent part of her childhood in Sri Lanka before returning to the United Kingdom as a refugee.
After she regained entry to the United States, she completed ‘Paper Planes’ at her home in Bedford-Stuyvesant in 2007.
Her time in the neighborhood helped shape the song’s lyrics as she thought about immigrants and refugees and how they are sometimes viewed in the United States.
Talking about her song, M.I.A. said: “People don’t really feel like immigrants or refugees contribute to culture in any way.”
She also explained the idea behind the song’s money-focused lyrics, saying: “America is so obsessed with money, I’m sure they’ll get it.”
