Story by Dwayne Yates | Photos courtesy of myspace.com

     In 2004, Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasamís 12-inch single titled Galang spun on Wesley “Diplo” Pentz’s turntables at the Fabric nightclub in London. She walked in the club and heard her song playing, and the two of them hit it off. 
     “Besides me being a white dude from Florida and her being a Sri Lankan girl in England, everything else was the same,” Diplo told pitchforkmedia.com. “We...were going the same direction in music, and it was amazing.”
     They realized they could help each other out by making music together. By then, she was signed under the label XL Recordings and going by the name M.I.A., and Diplo was in a group called Hollertronix.  
     M.I.A. sent Diplo some beats and a capellas from her debut album, Arular, which at the time, had yet to be released. He used what she gave him and fused it with Baile Funk, 80’s, dance hall and hip-hop tracks he was spinning at the time and created Piracy Funds Terrorism Vol. 1.  
     Diplo told pitchforkmedia.com that the two of them would pass the compact discs out after M.I.A. and other artists’ shows. Piracy Funds Terrorism was one of the first mash-up records of its time. Other mash-up artists, such as producer/artist Girltalk, emerged in following years. The record was a well-crafted publicity stunt, and it is only available online.  
     Today, M.I.A. has come a long way from 2004, when she and then-boyfriend Diplo, were passing out free copies of their mix-tape. She shot from obscurity to Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart with “Paper Planes,” the third single from her second album Kala and a song produced by Diplo.  
     Kala was released in August 2007, and “Paper Planes” was released as a single in March 2008. It was not until the song was featured on the soundtrack for the film Pineapple Express that it was revived and people recognized M.I.A. as a real artist, not an Internet celebrity. Recently, hip-hop heavy hitters T.I., Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and Kanye West collaborated on a song called “Swagga Like Us,” where the lyric “No one on the corner has swagger like us,” from the original ”Paper Planes” drives the song.  
     Four years into her career, a creative female rapper who worked her way to the top through the power of the Internet has finally become popular among blacks.
     Is that a feat?
     Jaaron Oliver, a junior hospitality management major, says there is a lack of acceptance for alternative forms of music in the greater black community. 
     “Not too many people are open-minded (in Kent),” Oliver said. “They might not like a song because they never heard it before. If you had a party (playing mostly dance music), you wouldn’t get a good turnout.”
     Dance, house, techno and electronic music are normally absent during black events in Kent and most other metropolitan cities in Ohio.  
     Vallery Washington, sophomore visual communication design major, said she thinks house beats are fun and easy to dance to but don’t get played because of the connotations that come with them. 
     “I think it would be fun to hear house music at parties,” she said. “If house music wasn’t associated with homosexuality, then black people would be more accepting of it. People hear a house beat and automatically start looking for voguers.”
Voguing is a form of dance mostly seen in the black, gay community done to mostly house and club beats. House music is not exclusive, though, as it is also popular among people who juke or Wu-tang in their hometown. People who juke or Wu-Tang mostly live in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Chicago, which shows that regional acceptance can be how dance styles catch on.  
     Ondia Butler, a senior marketing major from New Jersey, compares the New Jersey club scene to Kent’s.  
     “You mostly hear Cleveland music and Top 40 around here,” she said.
     “The last party I went to, they played Baltimore club music and no one danced,” Butler said. “Only the people from (the) East Coast are the ones who got it. I’m from New Jersey, and I listen to Baltimore club music when I go out, and I wouldn’t call (Kent State students) close-minded; they just haven’t been exposed to different types of music. It’s more sexual in Jersey because we play soca and reggae, but it’s diverse because you can go from Wu-tang to go-go.” 
     Black people do not think the same in every area of the country. People can have different attitudes toward the same song. Many people in Kent like Gucci Mane and go crazy when they hear one of his songs come on at a party. It’s not like that everywhere, though.  
Brittany Stephenson, a sophomore broadcast journalism major from Chicago, said the only time she heard Gucci Mane in Chicago was when Freaky Girl came out.  
     “I liked it as a dance song,” she said. “I just wouldn’t listen to it more than if I was getting ready to go out because it doesn’t have as much content as other songs I like.”
     Stephenson said Chicago is a good place for alternative music. The city hosts many music festivals, including the famous alternative music festival, Lollapalooza.  
     “Unlike (Kent), you would go to a club that caters toward what kind of music you listen to (in Chicago),” Stephenson said. “There’s a street called Fullerton, where there is all these clubs and there’s a salsa club, progressive hip-hop, drag, etc.”
     Washington D.C. is an important place for go-go music, which is live music with a lot of drums, horns and guitar and is usually led by a vocalist. R&B singer Amerie got her start singing in front of go-go bands, and rapper Wale gained his fan base rapping on the go-go scene. 
     Oliver is a fan of go-go music, but he is only aware of it through his friends’ connections to Washington.
     “I like D.C. go-go,” he said. “I have friends that go to Howard, and when they come home for break they give me songs to download.” 
     There is a rumbling underneath the surface of hip-hop, and it is going to replace what people think rap should be.