No one on the corner has swagger like M.I.A., but today’s Buy It Now might lend you some of that freshness you’ve been looking for. The rapper, singer, producer, artist, and now fashion designer takes inspiration from African, Mexican, and Muslim prints for her namesake clothing line. This cotton T-shirt is especially dope because it features her face—which means all the quirky hipster chicks will be running up on you asking where you copped it. Now that’s swagger on a hundred, thousand, trillion! See below for details, pics, and Buy It Now info…
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She might look like the lost member of Salt N’ Pepa circa 1987, but Rye Rye is in fact an 18-year-old rapper from Baltimore who happens to be the first artist signed to M.I.A.’s N.E.E.T. Records. Her ultra low-budget debut video was directed by Miss Maya herself, and features plenty of glow-in-the-dark dancers and tuxedo-clad B’more club kids.
So there was a little musical award ceremony this weekend and, as usual, hip-hop got robbed. But in the midst of the old white folk circle jerk came the evenings’ undisputed high point: T.I., Lil Wayne, Jay-Z and Kanye West rocking “Swagga Like Us” with a very pregnant M.I.A. singing the hook.
On a heavier note, shit is definitely not good in M.I.A.’s homeland of Sri Lanka (it’s in the midst of a 25-year civil war, with a segment of M.I.A.’s ancestral Tamil people seeking to secede from the country) and that’s something that not even Complex will joke about. But the island of Sri Lanka is home to some beautiful women, so to celebrate M.I.A.’s Grammy-saving performance, we present nine of the hottest…
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Each week, Complex’s resident music expert DJ Treats will be bringing you key tracks from a variety of genres. Click on a link below to hear the song and learn about the artist!
ELECTRO/POP: Lily Allen “Everyone’s At It”
RAP: Werdplay “Big Wheel”
ROCK: Bloc Party “Talons”
POP: Justin Timberlake “Magic”
DANCE/ELECTRONICA: M.I.A. “Shells”
This week will be remembered as the moment when the T.I./Shawty Lo beef finally came out of the closet. After throwing subliminals at each other for the last year, they both publicly acknowledged the tension for the first time in separate radio interviews'Tip on ATL’s 107.9, and Lo on Kay Slay’s show.
Now, on the brand new “Foolish” remix, which features DJ Khaled, Rick Ross, Jim Jones and Birdman (on the vocoder!), Lo contunues his quest to bring Tip’s Bankhead origins into question: “Cross your T’s and dot your I’s / I’m the real Bankhead, that’s no lie!” It ain’t exactly an ether, but its the closest either of them have come to saying the other man’s name on record. Listen after the jump.
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