M.I.A.’s biggest hit almost never was. The British-Sri Lankan artist’s breakout track was nearly lost after a fight with her producer – and boyfriend at the time – Diplo.
That track was Paper Planes, and as M.I.A. revealed to Rolling Stone in 2018: “It nearly didn’t happen. Straight after I wrote the song, me and Diplo had a massive fight, and I threw the hard drive [containing the demo] at his head from the top floor. Luckily the hard drive landed in the boot of the taxi that he was about to get into and not on the ground. So it got saved.”
This is one of several remarkable details about Paper Planes, a late single from M.I.A.’s second studio album Kala. From production to lyricism, this song became a triple-platinum-selling cultural behemoth despite flouting the rules of the pop music playbook.
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For a start, the track’s hook contains basically no lyrics. In a creative choice that many labels would never accept, the famous chorus is built around a rhythmic sound effect onslaught: gunshot, gunshot, gunshot, gunshot, gun cock, cash register ker-ching.
“You have to fight for your vision,” Diplo reflected on Daniel Wall’s Behind The Wall podcast, after revealing that label XL Recordings were extremely reluctant to release the song. That was down to several factors: its unusual hook, its bold political messaging, and the slightly odd creative process behind it.
Diplo recalled how Paper Planes was cut with co-producer Switch, and how one key element in the track was inspired by Pink Floyd’s use of schoolchildren’s voices in their classic hit song Another Brick In The Wall Part 2.
“We were in the studio, me and her and Switch, and we were like, ‘Yo, let’s get kids to do this thing,’” Diplo said. “Because I wanted it to have this Pink Floyd vibe to it. I was like, ‘This is English, this is kinda punky, let’s put some kids on this record.’ Some kids were in the street and I was like, ‘Bring ’em in!’ That made XL not wanna release it, but I was like, ‘This is what’s cool about it.’”
That punk spirit is present in the track’s primary sample, too. Joining the dots between two left-wing anti-establishment London artists — M.I.A. and The Clash — Diplo masterfully chopped up and looped a 10-second intro from The Clash’s 1982 track Straight To Hell, turning its chunky, rhythmic guitar chords and screeching lead line into an irresistible modern hip-hop melody.
M.I.A.’s tuneful, talkative rap style, peppered with references to modern consumer culture and money, slotted perfectly over the top of this brash, upbeat rhythm, helping obscure a strong, critical message about 21st-century America and the so-called war on terror.
For context, we should turn to her background. Born Maya Arulpragasam in Sri Lanka to Tamil parents who fled to Britain during the country’s brutal 26-year-long civil war, M.I.A. had personal experience of being a refugee, and took this awareness of the plight of asylum seekers and minorities into her songwriting.
“Gun shots are part of our culture as an everyday thing,” she told the Daily Beast in 2017, reflecting on the horrific war her family fled. “I’ve been shot at so I’m quite comfortable with gunshot sounds. If you have a problem with it, go and talk to the people who were shooting at me.”
Diving beyond those iconic sound effects, the track’s wider lyrics explore how M.I.A.’s traumatic past in Sri Lanka continued to impact her adult life. Specifically, she satirises her own experience of being denied a working visa in the US due to alleged (and denied) links to Tamil militia groups during the latter years of the devastating Sri Lankan civil war. She also addresses the broader response to 9/11 which saw people of colour face intense scrutiny and prejudice at the borders of the US and other Western nations, parodying the stereotype with a set of anthemic faux-hustler lyrics: “I fly like paper, get high like planes / If you catch me at the border, I got visas in my name.”
Paper Planes became a global hit after featuring first on Seth Rogen’s movie Pineapple Express, then on Oscar-sweeping modern classic Slumdog Millionaire. After Slumdog Millionaire swept the board at the 2009 Oscars, M.I.A.’s track reached new stratospheres, although the rapper herself credited Pineapple Express creator Seth Rogen with “changing my life”.
The song’s long-term global impact is a testament to the power of bold, unapologetic songwriting and spontaneous creative decision-making.
Megastars including 50 Cent, Rihanna, Dizzee Rascal, Jay-Z and Kanye West soon got in on the act, sampling, covering and remixing the track.
Almost two decades after its release, it remains one of the most iconic pop anthems of the 21st century.
