M.I.A. Teases New Music, Says New Album Coming in July

Earlier this month, M.I.A. tweeted that she was handing her “last LP” to her American label. Now, that album has a notional release date. During a Periscope Q&A recorded on her last day in the studio, she said the record would be out in “July. Summertime.” She continued, “It’s got 12 songs. I had to take the Disney thing off. I put ‘Galang’ on it instead, I sampled myself. I wanted to say, ‘Whatever, I can’t get Lion King, I’m gonna use my own song! That way no one can stop it.” She also reiterated that working in the U.S. remains impossible due to her visa denial. The video ends with a snippet of the “Staying rich like an ostrich” song she shared lyrics to last month. Watch the full video below.

“[I realized] you can make a record that’s happy about surviving,” she said of the album. “And not constantly talk about fight. At the end of the day, I feel like—maybe this is totally gibberish to everyone—but it’s probably better to remind people about survival than it is about the moment you go to battle. Because that’s just a moment.”

She added that a slated Rihanna collab never came to fruition because of their conflicting schedules. 

The announcement follows the handful of songs M.I.A. has shared in recent months: “Rewear It” as a part of an H&M campaign, “MIA OLA,” “Foreign Friend,” and “Temple,” a collaboration with Baauer and BIGBANG frontman G-Dragon. She recently previewed a new song saying she wanted to leak the album. M.I.A.’s last LP was 2013′s Matangi.

Read “How M.I.A. Is a Lifeline in Times of Terror” on the Pitch. 

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