This morning I was incensed by the revelations that the rap artist, M.I.A., wasn’t exactly who she puffed herself up to be which also confirmed my sneaking suspicions that the self-proclaimed voice to the young Tamil struggle in Sri Lanka was nothing more than a face (albeit a beautiful one) to an utterly disgusting pop-Frankenstein made up of lethargic, middle-class producers and engineers performing their ill-fitting duties as the cogs in a dying machine called the music industry. Frankly, I think Lynn Hirschberg at the New York Times let Maya Arulpragasam off way too easy, damning her with 9 pages of faint praise and contradiction.

Sure, the song ‘Paper Planes’ captured imaginations rocketing her to fame with it’s sampling of The Clash as a backdrop for her voice over rap – but it only stands to testimony that some things are classics and can stand on their own. And as she borrows here from the great Joe Strummer and company, Maya wraps herself in conflict and strife of the Tamil Tigers, falsely claiming their struggle as her own, and embossed that into the minds of many with that facile, para-military, ginger holocaust styled video in which we were assaulted with on the internet for her song, Born Free.

My first inkling that M.I.A. wasn’t all she said she was came when I was watching Real Time with Bill Maher and he interviewed her asking her about the plight of her native land, to which she seemed to know less to nothing about the Sri Lankan civil war than I did.

Chris Matyszczyk, at Cnet.com, summed up my sentiments this morning, reinforcing my dislike of M.I.A. and Twitter simultaneously. Simply put, Maya Arulpragasam, is a flaming jackass! I pity anyone who bought into her shtick and purchased any of her music. Her persona is like an onion, the more you unravel the layers, the more you are brought to tears, only to then be used to make Revolution Canapé.

Now, why does this even matter to me?

A writing teacher in college once told me, “Don’t write or produce work from the point of view that you know nothing about. It will be your own undoing.” These are words to live by, as an artist. Another one might be, “Don’t shit where you eat.”

I’m the product of my working class family and my environment. Historically, I’m also the first person in the last 200 years (perhaps more) of my family to attend a college and complete my studies. I almost dropped out of college after my second year because I ran out of money, and only when I begged the school to find some need based scholarship funds was I allowed to continue my studies to get my Bachelor in Fine Arts degree of which I have remaining $12,000 in loans I pay at regular monthly intervals. I bust my ass in a graphic design/printing job that sees me as little more than a skilled hand to press buttons, just so my right-wingnut boss can live just off a golf course and make ludicrous payments on a lease for his Porsche to keep up appearances at the country club or on his Match.com dates. I come home and I’m so fucking tired, that what little time I have for myself on weekends is spent doing battle with weeds in my garden or going out looking for somebody to fist my brains out so I can forget it all for a night when I should be making artwork for appreciative clients – not the ones who run magazines who collect thousands of dollars from beer or porn company advertisements or run gay shops in trendy parts of town who can’t be bothered to dole out paltry sums of money to artists trying to make it in this world.

Ask me again why I’m upset and I will keep pointing at charlatans like M.I.A. and the people who like to play the fool.

From now until June 1st – Any prints or cards bought of my image, “Cockabilly“, I will give 50% of my take to help those in need in the Nashville flooding through the Red Cross. Temporary shelters are at capacity, missing people are unaccounted for, many homes are under water, there is a water conservation emergency, much of Nashville’s economic base is threatened by the epic flood damage.

Just drop me an email detailing how many cards or 13″x19″ prints you want and we’ll set up the PayPal connection to get you your new piece of art for a good cause.