Stay relevant

2005 M.I.A Pitchfork interview, describing the circumstances of her first album:

M.I.A.: The thing that I got exposed to when I met Justine was a lot of middle-class kids making music in England who had everything at their disposal and nothing to say. They didn’t rep anything! Yet everybody was having soul-searching issues going, “Oh my Goooooood, who am I, what am I doing? I might have to go to a yoga retreat this year.” And I’d be like, “Why don’t you just look at what’s going on and be a part of the planet, instead of wanting to be what’s come before?” Which is how all those bands set themselves up– they aspired to be [older] bands and forget what’s going on [today].”