As predicted, M.I.A. was never really going to make 2016’s AIM her “last” album. And it’s good to be vindicated about that because the world needs her voice now more than ever. For the rise and oversaturation of social media was not at quite such a crescendo then as it is now, and we’ve desperately needed that sardonic M.I.A. take on the matter. Enter “Popular,” her latest single to follow up “The One,” which will also appear on her sixth album, Mata, (though no word on whether 2020’s “OHMNI 202091” and “CTRL”—not to mention that ill-advised collab with Travis Scott on “Franchise”—will make the cut).
In contrast to the more jubilant (and slightly less tongue-in-cheek in terms of expressing arrogance) “The One,” “Popular” drips with a new level of venomous sarcasm that gives Nada Surf’s quintessential 90s song of the same name a run for its money. The video, directed by Arnaud Bresson, starts out with someone asking an empty chair, “Tell us a little bit about yourself.” Eerily enough, this storytelling device mirrors what happens in Severance when outies and innies are able to tape themselves in order to relay messages to the other. The answer given: “I’m M.A.I.” A play on M.I.A.’s name to allude to artificial intelligence, obviously. M.I.A.’s robot alter ego smacks of Mark Scout’s (Adam Scott) severed self, just doing his best to be well-liked in the workplace without causing any controversy.
And, in case anyone forgot, causing controversy was once M.I.A.’s bread and butter (complete with innocently flipping the bird during the 2012 Super Bowl Halftime Show as she fittingly rapped, “I’ma say this once: I don’t give a shit”—though she likely did after the very expensive lawsuit the NFL slapped her with). In the present, however, it’s all about being “on-brand” in ways that merely toe the line between pandering “irreverence” and outright “disrespect” (because yes, certain opinions will get a person all kinds of cancelled if they don’t align with what is deemed “correct” by the Hallowed Powers of the Media). M.I.A. mocks this endlessly through her “influencer bot,” which she instructs on how to be “Popular” through a series of generic poses (e.g., a hair flip and the “make it rain” maneuver) and dance moves (twerking, naturally) we’ve all come to know so well in this culture of manufactured lifestyles.
Perhaps knowing on some level that, if she wants to “return” to the musical landscape, she has to participate in the social media juggernaut, M.I.A.’s concept for the video is slight wishful thinking, too—as though she wants desperately to have a severed self in the form of this robot to do all of her promotion for her so she can just focus on the art and steer clear of the unnecessary displays of self-absorption.
And it is an art to brandish her rapier wit so unapologetically against the influencer “culture” she mocks as she sings in a tone from their perspective, “I got the best suites, I got the best sheet I got the best seats, best shoes on my feet/Pictures of my body cause a stampede, ayy/If you cut me, success I bleed/If you don’t know, I’m a queen.” That last line seems appropriate coming from a Briton at this juncture, with the infection of monarchical reign remaining prevalent even in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s death. M.I.A. adds braggadociously, as though it’s reason enough to be loved and respected, “Popular, I’m popular I’m really, really popular” (and why shouldn’t it be, if it worked for that fossil fuel-emitting cunt, Regina George?). She then seems to adopt a (Kar)dash of the Kanye ego when she continues, “Yeah, love me like I love me, love me/Suddenly it’s about me, ’bout me/Now you wanna be around me, ’round me/‘Cause I love myself, I’m livin’ my best life.”
Of course, M.I.A. wants to bring up how there is a clear distinction between “self-love” (a phenomenon that’s being overly peddled among the “wellness” circuit) and flat-out narcissism. In the current climate, it appears as though no one can distinguish between the two anymore. In the video, M.I.A. also wants to make sure no one can distinguish from her influencer bot self and her real self either. To add to that societal commentary, the behind-the-scenes footage from the filming features M.I.A.’s more robotic “severed” self declaring, “I did my best to be everything she wanted to me to be… Maybe she was jealous I was better than her.” In effect, the narcissism she was instructed to exhibit has become real. And that’s precisely why the real M.I.A. must kill her “innie” (a categorization that holds if we’re describing being an influencer as “work”).
With archival footage of people dancing and mugging for the proverbial camera interspersed, we see that, in so many ways, we have all become irrevocably severed. There is the self that is always “on,” performing for some invisible audience, and the self that still knows, somewhere deep down, that everything being sold on social media is complete and utter bullshit.
