Sri Lankan/Brit M.I.A. (Maya Arulpragasam) creates what can easily be called "Internet music"--mainly because that's where her reputation was first established. The now popular songs "Galang," "Sunshowers," and "Hombre" (my personal favorite), were first heard on her website, miauk.com, where they've been posted since early last year. For the most part, music (and art in general) moves from the real world into the Internet, where it is archived; with the release of M.I.A.'s debut CD, Arular, on March 22, however, the reverse shall happen--it will move from the Internet to the real world.

M.I.A.'s beats can also be described as Internet music because aesthetically, they possess the sound and spirit of the Internet. Like the web, Arular is global; it's a hyper mix of musical forms from New York City (rap), London (garage), Kingston (dancehall), Virginia Beach (Neptunes, Timbaland), and East Asian pop. There is no central or dominant element, and her raps are located somewhere between Missy Elliott, Debbie Harry, the Cookie Crew, Monie Love, and the Spice Girls. M.I.A. is the point at which a wild variety of musical and vocal styles meet.

"The reason why I'm happy about the Internet is it's something you can access all over the world at the same time, and it's so easy to use," she says over the phone from her mother's home in London. While we speak, Diplo, an emerging DJ from Philadelphia who produced some of the tracks on her new CD, happens to be visiting M.I.A.'s brother, Suku, and both can be heard making beats in another room. "It's brilliant to come out a globally aware person, and to want to be a part of so many different cultures. Like, I want to include the Sri Lankan thing, I want to include the British thing, I want to get to know the American thing. I like what's going on in Brazil, what's going on in Africa, and I care about what's going on in Palestine…. Because I draw from anywhere I want in the world and put it into the music, it makes sense that I get represented by a technology that can be accessed all over the world."

M.I.A.'s music is not only represented and distributed by an information technology, it is also thoroughly technological itself. There is nothing earthy or natural in the land of Arular, and yet it is very sensual and human. For M.I.A., the body/machine dichotomy does exist, and you also won't find in her raps a drop of that post-human anguish that burdens the mind of, say, Dizzee Rascal (M.I.A's lablemate). Dizzee, like a paranoid android, is always trying to protect some essence of his identity from a world that is increasingly computerized, depersonalized, and synthetic. At times, he isn't even sure if yesterday existed, or if the memories of his childhood are his own, and he becomes so frustrated with this situation that he can't act; he sits down and watches the world go by. M.I.A. is all action--political action, party action, sexual action.

"Technology is there to help you," she says, as spidery dancehall beats pump from what sounds like her mother's basement. "The new technologies have opened possibilities for my music, for connecting me with people at different levels, like Diplo. I just would not be who I am if wasn't for these new technologies."

M.I.A.'s raps are directed to a large group at a packed party. Even when she's being sexy, it seems as if she's seducing a bunch of men instead of one in particular. In M.I.A.'s world, the erotic, like the political, is public; you do the nasty on the dance floor, not in the bedroom. "I went to the Caribbean [Saint Vincent]," she explains, "to visit Cherry, the girl that I sing with, and I ended up going to the clubs and parties every night, dancing every night, with everyone. It was an environment where music was such an amazing part of your life. Hearing the sound systems on constantly in the streets, I got really inspired…." Arular aspires to be a constant sound system for a massive street party that will never cool down or end.

charles@thestranger.com