Maya Arulpragasamn, better known as M.I.A., has made a name for herself as an innovative and eclectic artist and music maker. After dropping Arular in 2005, M.I.A. was lauded for her unique sound and defiant attitude with her politically-charged lyrics. The tracks were not only hot in the clubs, but were also used on American TV, like with "Galang" being played in Honda Civic commercials.
With all this attention aimed at a woman of many trades (she's also a filmmaker and visual artist), everyone was eager to find out what else M.I.A.'s had up her sleeve. But when visa issues wouldn't let her back into the U.S. or even her Brooklyn apartment, M.I.A. transformed into a nomad - traveling the world to sample culturally endemic sounds from their home countries. Named after her mother, Kala fuses the sounds of India, Africa, Jamaica, Trinidad, Australia, London and the United States.
