M.I.A: Ode to Club 27

Just when the world was about to forget M.I.A after the disappointing third album and her subsequent bitching of criticism directed at the record, tragedy struck and inspired the rap riot girl to share her portentous unreleased track ’27’ with the world. As you have probably guessed, the eponymous number is in reference to the age musicians die and become legends at. Don’t mistake this for an opportunistic move though, the song was meant for her Vickileekx mixtape and recorded 9 months prior to the untimely death of Amy Winehouse. And as her disclaimer says, the track is a paean to all her peers who died at that age.

Lyrically she is at her poignant best here, no one has summed the falseness of celebrity death quite as morbid and concise as the line “when I left, you befriended a rope and I found you both were hanging.” Perhaps topically appropriate and intentional, the track ends abruptly after that line – like a lot of artists who died at 27, the song never hit a peak.