Friday May 9 (7:30pm)
More than a dancehall diva or hybrid hip-hop hero, M.I.A. (aka Maya Arulpragasam) is an anthropologist — a savvy student of the urban/rural divide. On her over-the-moon debut, Arular, the lovably shrill singer/rapper/toaster refurbished the age-old summer anthem with worldly electronics and revolutionary rhetoric. 2007's Kala shows her critical eye growing ever more acute, as universalist tunes like the toast-heavy "Hussel" and world-gangsta hip-hopper "World Town" cleverly contextualize the trials of the disenfranchised. Prepare for an all-out assault tonight; her buoyant bangers up the urbanites and estranged alike, breaking out the "Bucky Done Gun"-style hooks in a series of genre-defying sing-alongs.
– Andrew Phillips