Boyz (song)
Encyclopedia
"Boyz" is a song recorded by artist M.I.A.
for her second album Kala
(2007). The song was released as the album's lead single
by XL Recordings
and Interscope Records
on 11 June 2007 in 12-inch single
, CD single
, digital download
and USB flash drive
formats. "Boyz" was released in an enhanced EP format in its CD single release, and the song also features on the How Many Votes Fix Mix EP
. "Boyz" received its world premiere on the BBC Radio 1
radio station in London on 24 April, 2007.
Written and produced by Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam
and Dave "Switch" Taylor
, the song was composed in Chennai, Trinidad and Brooklyn. M.I.A. explained the song as being a combination of her traditional and electronic musical roots. In the song, M.I.A. sings about men, mocking and simultaneously praising them for various character traits. Several dance moves from Jamaica are name-checked in the recording, which M.I.A. wrote while thinking of the country.
An uptempo dance song, "Boyz" draws from West Indian soca and Tamil gaana influences, incorporating electronica and club music influences to a 4/4 beat bassline. Displaying elements of worldbeat, its instrumentation consists of urumee drum percussion, trumpets, tambourines, electronic scratches and synths. The song's accompanying music video
directed by Jay Will Williams and M.I.A. presents the singer-rapper dancing with several male dancers from Jamaican dance crews surrounded by colorful lo-fi computer animated graphics, and received widespread critical acclaim reaffirming M.I.A. for having started a new dance and graphic design revolution in music and videos.
"Boyz" reached number number 7 on the Canadian Singles Chart
and the US Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart and number 99 on the Billboard Pop 100
. With the song also peaking at number 3 on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales
, eight places higher than "Galang", "Boyz" gave M.I.A. her first top ten charting single and the record for the first artist of Sri Lankan and Tamil descent to have a top ten charting single in Billboard history and the first to chart on the Billboard Pop 100 chart. The song placed at number 9 on the Rolling Stone
"100 Best Songs of 2007" list. "Boyz" has made appearances in many television shows and video games since its release, and featured in the film Eat Pray Love.
and Switch
, the song was the first official single to be lifted from M.I.A.'s second studio album Kala
.
" utilizes elements of gaana
, music of the Dappan koothu
style of dance referenced in the song, in a paean to the sounds she heard emanating from temples in Jaffna and Chennai as a child. The rapper chose to record the song using urumee
drummers from Chennai in India before taking her material to Trinidad
where she recorded the vocals, and layered the song with West Indian influences. The song was then worked on further in Brooklyn
. She admits: "There's this one drum called the urmi
that I really wanted to use on my album...It's like a spoke drum that they use in temples; they use it in this kind of music called 'gaana.' ... That’s the same drum in 'Boyz' too." She says that the song has a "very outdoors" sound, and that although she "didn't record the drums outdoors, I think it sounds like that." As Michael Hubbard of MusicOMH
notes, "Boyz" is ostensibly a ditty
by a woman about the opposite sex, where the lyrics ask "how many boys are crazy and how many start a war."
's Radio 1
show on 24 April 2007. On 3 June 2007, the HQ Radio Edit of Boyz was leaked to the internet. On 10 June 2007, details of the release were published on M.I.A.'s official website. The track was released internationally via XL Recordings
, in the UK via XL as a limited edition 12 inch maxi single and in USB key format on June 11, and as a 12 inch vinyl and enhanced EP
CD single in the US via Interscope Records
on 17 July.
The single was also released through M.I.A.'s official website's store on 10 August. The single was available for purchase in physical CD-single format, 12" vinyl and also limited edition 512MB USB stick/wristband (released in five different colors). The song was released on 18 June 2007 on iTunes Store
s in Europe and peaked at number nineteen on the UK iTunes Dance Most Downloaded Songs.
The Boyz EP release includes a cappella
and instrumental versions of the single, photos, remix parts, the video, and a making of the video part 1 feature. An Akon
remix of "Boyz" was leaked at the time of the EP's release.
. Isaac McCalla of About.com
praised the energy of the track as "bound to set feet on fire", noting how the live instrumentation of world beats, chanting and crowd noise on the song gave the recoding an authentic feel, and allowed listeners to "nearly see dust kicking into the air at a tribal ceremony as the disc spins." In another 4 star review, Fraser McAlpine, writing for BBC Radio 1
, highlighted the song as an ode to men, saying that the singer "likes the boys who fall over when they dance, she likes the ones who act a bit mad cos they're over-compensating for not having any cash, she likes the ones who drive motorbikes and she likes the ones who can cook chicken on a wall." Describing the song as "morse discourse" due to its lyrical ambiguity, and stating that he had little idea of what message the singer wished to give with her "Nananaananaananaa" lyric, McAlpine concluded that M.I.A. still "seems very keen that we should all hear what she's saying, cos that rhythm is hammered across everything, from the battered brass and pixie yells to the drunk samba drums." Rosie Swash of The Guardian
commented in a positive review that "Boyz" was "missing no action" and that the song "stutters into life with an inane cry of "na na na na na na!" " before continuing into a "catchy character assassination of Boyz who are raw and crazy and start wars." Swash felt that "if anyone can get away with this kind of superficial analysis of the male of species, then it's riddim rider MIA." Jesal 'Jay Soul' Padania of RapReviews described the song as an "undeniable rump-shaker".
Robert Christgau
, writing in Rolling Stone
in a highly favourable track by track review of Kala commented on the video's use of "synchronized Kingston rudies shaking their money makers for the Interscope dollar", while comparing the acute "high kiddie/girlie interjections[...] that's sustained pitchwise" on the song to the vocals on "Bird Flu". He felt that only with the fourth track on the album did a conventional song surface, but that this compositional stye employed earlier contributed well to the "heavier, noiser, more jagged" whole of Kala. Conversely, Jonathan Keefe writing in Slant Magazine felt that this was a flaw with "Boyz", stating that unlike the minimalism of "Galang," it "barely qualifies as a song and is undone as a potential club-banger by playing too loose with its rhythmic shifts." Dan Weiss of LAS Magazine
noted that the "few booming calls" on "Boyz" sounded more like "triumphant hoedowns at a summer camp than fierce indictments of foreign policy", contributing to a more calmer and scattered feel to Kala than predecessor Arular
. Weiss noted that the cover artwork for the single matched the music video and that the song could be a "boy crazy tune" or a demand for a boy that will "start a war," before saying "given her mixed messages, maybe Arulpragasam is just mocking the ones that do start wars with a faux-fistpumper. Her tone, droll as ever, tends to make it hard to tell." Dan Raper of PopMatters
said that "Boyz" is "the hugest-sounding song on the album—it has layers beneath layers, and sounds nothing like its soca roots."
" from season 2 of the TV show Heroes
, a sixth season episode of the TV show CSI: Miami
, and the episode "Back to New York" from the fourth season of the MTV
show The Hills
. It was featured in FIFA Street 3
along with the song "Bird Flu
" and in the basketball game NBA 08
.
On October 9, 2008, two remixes to "Boyz" were leaked onto the internet with one featuring Wale
and the other, Jay-Z
. The remix featuring Jay Z appears on the How Many Votes Fix Mix EP
. Another version of the song was released by Swizz Beatz
titled "I'm Supposed to Ball". In 2010, the song was featured in the film Eat Pray Love.
for the single was directed by Jason "Jay Will" Williams and M.I.A., and shot in Jamaica
towards the end of April 2007. On the day of her arrival, Williams took M.I.A. to Dutty Fridays where she met some dancers. The musician Beenie Man
had the song played by the DJ in the club for 45 minutes non-stop that night. It eventually created a dance revolution in the country, attracting so much attention that the island's dance crews arrived en masse for the video shoot. Photographs from the set of the video appeared on the internet in early May. The video features M.I.A. singing and dancing in serene surroundings with vibrant, neon colours and animation graphics, accompanied by several male dancers of the different dance crews in Jamaica. One scene sees M.I.A. dancing around a defunct car. The video premiered on M.I.A.'s official website and MySpace page on 10 June 2007. In the "Making of 'Boyz' video" feature, Arulpragasam stated she "wanted the frame to end up looking just like ripped-off flyer posters
." She took the video to England, before completing graphics for it in New York. Sam Lewis of Drowned in Sound
called the video "ludicrously colourful", comparing it favorably to the cover artwork of Kala.
12" vinyl
U.S. CD single (Enhanced EP)/USB wristband
M.I.A. (artist)
Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam , better known by her stage name M.I.A. , is an English singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, painter and director of Sri Lankan Tamil descent. Her compositions combine elements of hip hop, electronica, dance, alternative and world music. M.I.A...
for her second album Kala
Kala (album)
Kala is the second studio album by British musician M.I.A., released in August 2007. The album features musical styles ranging from dance music to alternative hip hop and makes extensive use of South Asian music such as that of the urumee, a drum used in gaana music native to Tamil Nadu, India. It...
(2007). The song was released as the album's lead single
Lead single
A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band before the release of its home album.During the era of the grammophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less...
by XL Recordings
XL Recordings
XL Recordings is a British independent record label owned by Richard Russell. It originated as a 1989 offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records.Though only releasing an average of six albums a year, XL Recordings has worked with The Prodigy, Radiohead, The White Stripes, Dizzee Rascal, M.I.A., Vampire...
and Interscope Records
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...
on 11 June 2007 in 12-inch single
12-inch single
The 12-inch single is a type of gramophone record that has wider groove spacing compared to other types of records. This allows for louder levels to be cut on the disc by the cutting engineer, which in turn gives a wider dynamic range, and thus better sound quality...
, CD single
CD single
A CD single is a music single in the form of a standard size Compact Disc, not to be confused with the 3-inch CD single, which uses a smaller form factor. The format was introduced in the mid-1980s, but did not gain its place in the market until the early 1990s...
, digital download
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
and USB flash drive
USB flash drive
A flash drive is a data storage device that consists of flash memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus interface. flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 30 g...
formats. "Boyz" was released in an enhanced EP format in its CD single release, and the song also features on the How Many Votes Fix Mix EP
How Many Votes Fix Mix EP
How Many Votes Fix Mix is the second EP released in 2008 by the musician M.I.A. . It was released on October 28, 2008 by XL Recordings/Interscope Records and made available on iTunes. It received a full release on November 4, 2008...
. "Boyz" received its world premiere on the BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
radio station in London on 24 April, 2007.
Written and produced by Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam
M.I.A. (artist)
Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam , better known by her stage name M.I.A. , is an English singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, painter and director of Sri Lankan Tamil descent. Her compositions combine elements of hip hop, electronica, dance, alternative and world music. M.I.A...
and Dave "Switch" Taylor
Switch (DJ)
Switch is a UK-based DJ, songwriter, sound engineer and record producer. He is best known for his work with M.I.A. and Santigold.In the fidget house genre, Switch runs his own music label "Dubsided", as well as the label Counterfeet, established in 2006 with fellow producer Sinden...
, the song was composed in Chennai, Trinidad and Brooklyn. M.I.A. explained the song as being a combination of her traditional and electronic musical roots. In the song, M.I.A. sings about men, mocking and simultaneously praising them for various character traits. Several dance moves from Jamaica are name-checked in the recording, which M.I.A. wrote while thinking of the country.
An uptempo dance song, "Boyz" draws from West Indian soca and Tamil gaana influences, incorporating electronica and club music influences to a 4/4 beat bassline. Displaying elements of worldbeat, its instrumentation consists of urumee drum percussion, trumpets, tambourines, electronic scratches and synths. The song's accompanying music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
directed by Jay Will Williams and M.I.A. presents the singer-rapper dancing with several male dancers from Jamaican dance crews surrounded by colorful lo-fi computer animated graphics, and received widespread critical acclaim reaffirming M.I.A. for having started a new dance and graphic design revolution in music and videos.
"Boyz" reached number number 7 on the Canadian Singles Chart
Canadian Singles Chart
The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays....
and the US Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart and number 99 on the Billboard Pop 100
Pop 100
The Pop 100 was a songs chart that debuted in February 2005 and was released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States until its discontinuation in 2009...
. With the song also peaking at number 3 on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales
Hot Dance Singles Sales
Hot Dance Singles Sales is a chart released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States, established in 1985. It measures the sale of commercially released singles that deal with dance music and remixes...
, eight places higher than "Galang", "Boyz" gave M.I.A. her first top ten charting single and the record for the first artist of Sri Lankan and Tamil descent to have a top ten charting single in Billboard history and the first to chart on the Billboard Pop 100 chart. The song placed at number 9 on the Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
"100 Best Songs of 2007" list. "Boyz" has made appearances in many television shows and video games since its release, and featured in the film Eat Pray Love.
Background
Written and co-produced by Maya ArulpragasamM.I.A. (artist)
Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam , better known by her stage name M.I.A. , is an English singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, painter and director of Sri Lankan Tamil descent. Her compositions combine elements of hip hop, electronica, dance, alternative and world music. M.I.A...
and Switch
Switch (DJ)
Switch is a UK-based DJ, songwriter, sound engineer and record producer. He is best known for his work with M.I.A. and Santigold.In the fidget house genre, Switch runs his own music label "Dubsided", as well as the label Counterfeet, established in 2006 with fellow producer Sinden...
, the song was the first official single to be lifted from M.I.A.'s second studio album Kala
Kala (album)
Kala is the second studio album by British musician M.I.A., released in August 2007. The album features musical styles ranging from dance music to alternative hip hop and makes extensive use of South Asian music such as that of the urumee, a drum used in gaana music native to Tamil Nadu, India. It...
.
Composition
"Boyz", like "Bird FluBird Flu (song)
"Bird Flu" is an urumee melam song recorded by the Sri Lankan Tamil songwriter M.I.A.. It was released in 2006 and appears on her second studio album Kala, released in 2007....
" utilizes elements of gaana
Gaana
Gaana is a type of Tamil song, often accompanied by the percussion of Dappan koothu. It is characterised as a fastbeat song, with less emphasis on meaning, sung at a celebration. Initially, this was very popular with Indians from Chennai to relax while doing stressful work. It gained further...
, music of the Dappan koothu
Dappan koothu
Dappan Koothu is a folk dance and music genre with an emphasis on percussion performed in Tamil Nadu, India. It has become one of several popular genres employed in film music: Tamil cinema....
style of dance referenced in the song, in a paean to the sounds she heard emanating from temples in Jaffna and Chennai as a child. The rapper chose to record the song using urumee
Urumee
The urumee is a double-headed hourglass-shaped drum from the state of Tamil Nadu, South India. Two skin heads are attached to a single hallow, often intricately carved wooden shell. The preferred wood is jackwood, although other wood may be used...
drummers from Chennai in India before taking her material to Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
where she recorded the vocals, and layered the song with West Indian influences. The song was then worked on further in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. She admits: "There's this one drum called the urmi
Urumee
The urumee is a double-headed hourglass-shaped drum from the state of Tamil Nadu, South India. Two skin heads are attached to a single hallow, often intricately carved wooden shell. The preferred wood is jackwood, although other wood may be used...
that I really wanted to use on my album...It's like a spoke drum that they use in temples; they use it in this kind of music called 'gaana.' ... That’s the same drum in 'Boyz' too." She says that the song has a "very outdoors" sound, and that although she "didn't record the drums outdoors, I think it sounds like that." As Michael Hubbard of MusicOMH
MusicOMH
musicOMH is a United Kingdom-based website which publishes independent reviews, featues and interviews from across all musical genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B.-History:...
notes, "Boyz" is ostensibly a ditty
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
by a woman about the opposite sex, where the lyrics ask "how many boys are crazy and how many start a war."
Release
The song was premiered on Zane LoweZane Lowe
Zane Lowe also known as 'Zipper', is a radio DJ and television presenter. He was born in New Zealand and grew up in Auckland, where he was a presenter on the local music station Max TV, before moving to England...
's Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
show on 24 April 2007. On 3 June 2007, the HQ Radio Edit of Boyz was leaked to the internet. On 10 June 2007, details of the release were published on M.I.A.'s official website. The track was released internationally via XL Recordings
XL Recordings
XL Recordings is a British independent record label owned by Richard Russell. It originated as a 1989 offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records.Though only releasing an average of six albums a year, XL Recordings has worked with The Prodigy, Radiohead, The White Stripes, Dizzee Rascal, M.I.A., Vampire...
, in the UK via XL as a limited edition 12 inch maxi single and in USB key format on June 11, and as a 12 inch vinyl and enhanced EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
CD single in the US via Interscope Records
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...
on 17 July.
The single was also released through M.I.A.'s official website's store on 10 August. The single was available for purchase in physical CD-single format, 12" vinyl and also limited edition 512MB USB stick/wristband (released in five different colors). The song was released on 18 June 2007 on iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
s in Europe and peaked at number nineteen on the UK iTunes Dance Most Downloaded Songs.
The Boyz EP release includes a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
and instrumental versions of the single, photos, remix parts, the video, and a making of the video part 1 feature. An Akon
Akon
Aliaune Damala Badara Thiam, better known as simply Akon , is a Senegalese American R&B recording artist and songwriter.According to Forbes, Akon grossed $21 million in 2010, $20 million in 2009 and $12 million in 2008. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of "Locked Up", the first...
remix of "Boyz" was leaked at the time of the EP's release.
Critical reception
The song has received acclaim from a wide variety of publications, and has been viewed as a highlight of KalaKala (album)
Kala is the second studio album by British musician M.I.A., released in August 2007. The album features musical styles ranging from dance music to alternative hip hop and makes extensive use of South Asian music such as that of the urumee, a drum used in gaana music native to Tamil Nadu, India. It...
. Isaac McCalla of About.com
About.com
About.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....
praised the energy of the track as "bound to set feet on fire", noting how the live instrumentation of world beats, chanting and crowd noise on the song gave the recoding an authentic feel, and allowed listeners to "nearly see dust kicking into the air at a tribal ceremony as the disc spins." In another 4 star review, Fraser McAlpine, writing for BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
, highlighted the song as an ode to men, saying that the singer "likes the boys who fall over when they dance, she likes the ones who act a bit mad cos they're over-compensating for not having any cash, she likes the ones who drive motorbikes and she likes the ones who can cook chicken on a wall." Describing the song as "morse discourse" due to its lyrical ambiguity, and stating that he had little idea of what message the singer wished to give with her "Nananaananaananaa" lyric, McAlpine concluded that M.I.A. still "seems very keen that we should all hear what she's saying, cos that rhythm is hammered across everything, from the battered brass and pixie yells to the drunk samba drums." Rosie Swash of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
commented in a positive review that "Boyz" was "missing no action" and that the song "stutters into life with an inane cry of "na na na na na na!" " before continuing into a "catchy character assassination of Boyz who are raw and crazy and start wars." Swash felt that "if anyone can get away with this kind of superficial analysis of the male of species, then it's riddim rider MIA." Jesal 'Jay Soul' Padania of RapReviews described the song as an "undeniable rump-shaker".
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
, writing in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
in a highly favourable track by track review of Kala commented on the video's use of "synchronized Kingston rudies shaking their money makers for the Interscope dollar", while comparing the acute "high kiddie/girlie interjections[...] that's sustained pitchwise" on the song to the vocals on "Bird Flu". He felt that only with the fourth track on the album did a conventional song surface, but that this compositional stye employed earlier contributed well to the "heavier, noiser, more jagged" whole of Kala. Conversely, Jonathan Keefe writing in Slant Magazine felt that this was a flaw with "Boyz", stating that unlike the minimalism of "Galang," it "barely qualifies as a song and is undone as a potential club-banger by playing too loose with its rhythmic shifts." Dan Weiss of LAS Magazine
LAS Magazine
LAS Magazine, also known as Lost At Sea or LostAtSea.net, is a daily online magazine founded in 1998 by Eric J Herboth. An online social group for the magazine list it in the "Entertainment & Arts - Online Media" category with a description of "Art. Bike. Music. Media. Literature. Photography....
noted that the "few booming calls" on "Boyz" sounded more like "triumphant hoedowns at a summer camp than fierce indictments of foreign policy", contributing to a more calmer and scattered feel to Kala than predecessor Arular
Arular
Arular is the 2005 debut album by British musician M.I.A. Originally set for a September 2004 release, the album was delayed due to problems obtaining permission to use samples. Arular was finally released in the US on 22 March 2005 and a month later in the UK with a slightly different track...
. Weiss noted that the cover artwork for the single matched the music video and that the song could be a "boy crazy tune" or a demand for a boy that will "start a war," before saying "given her mixed messages, maybe Arulpragasam is just mocking the ones that do start wars with a faux-fistpumper. Her tone, droll as ever, tends to make it hard to tell." Dan Raper of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
said that "Boyz" is "the hugest-sounding song on the album—it has layers beneath layers, and sounds nothing like its soca roots."
Song use in media
"Boyz" was featured in the episode "Fight or FlightFight or Flight (Heroes)
"Fight or Flight" is the fifth episode of the second season of the NBC science fiction drama series Heroes. It aired on October 22, 2007. This episode marks the first appearance of Elle, played by Kristen Bell, credited as a series regular...
" from season 2 of the TV show Heroes
Heroes (TV series)
Heroes is an American science fiction television drama series created by Tim Kring that appeared on NBC for four seasons from September 25, 2006 through February 8, 2010. The series tells the stories of ordinary people who discover superhuman abilities, and how these abilities take effect in the...
, a sixth season episode of the TV show CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....
, and the episode "Back to New York" from the fourth season of the MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
show The Hills
The Hills
The Hills is a reality television series which originally aired on MTV from May 31, 2006 until July 13, 2010. The show uses a reality television format, following the personal lives of several young adults living in Los Angeles, California, but tends towards a narrative format more commonly found...
. It was featured in FIFA Street 3
FIFA Street 3
FIFA Street 3 is a video game for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS. It is the third game in the FIFA Street series. Electronic Arts confirmed that a third FIFA Street game was being developed for next-generation consoles to be released in 2008. The game will be using the same engine from...
along with the song "Bird Flu
Bird Flu (song)
"Bird Flu" is an urumee melam song recorded by the Sri Lankan Tamil songwriter M.I.A.. It was released in 2006 and appears on her second studio album Kala, released in 2007....
" and in the basketball game NBA 08
NBA 08
NBA 08 is a NBA basketball simulation developed by SCE San Diego Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released on October 2, 2007 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, and PlayStation 2...
.
On October 9, 2008, two remixes to "Boyz" were leaked onto the internet with one featuring Wale
Wale (rapper)
Wale Victor Folarin , better known by his stage name Wale , is an American rapper from Washington, D.C. Wale was born to Nigerian parents. He rose to prominence in 2006, when his song "Dig Dug " became popular in his hometown. Wale became locally recognized and continued recording music for the...
and the other, Jay-Z
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...
. The remix featuring Jay Z appears on the How Many Votes Fix Mix EP
How Many Votes Fix Mix EP
How Many Votes Fix Mix is the second EP released in 2008 by the musician M.I.A. . It was released on October 28, 2008 by XL Recordings/Interscope Records and made available on iTunes. It received a full release on November 4, 2008...
. Another version of the song was released by Swizz Beatz
Swizz Beatz
Kasseem Dean , better known by his stage name, Swizz Beatz, is an American record producer, DJ, rapper and painter. At the age of 17, he gained attention in the hip-hop world through his friendship with rapper DMX. Grady Spivey and rapper Cassidy helped launch his label Full Surface Records...
titled "I'm Supposed to Ball". In 2010, the song was featured in the film Eat Pray Love.
Music video
The music videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for the single was directed by Jason "Jay Will" Williams and M.I.A., and shot in Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
towards the end of April 2007. On the day of her arrival, Williams took M.I.A. to Dutty Fridays where she met some dancers. The musician Beenie Man
Beenie Man
Anthony Moses Davis , better known by his stage name Beenie Man, is a Grammy award winning Jamaican reggae artist. He is the self-proclaimed "King of the Dancehall".-Biography:...
had the song played by the DJ in the club for 45 minutes non-stop that night. It eventually created a dance revolution in the country, attracting so much attention that the island's dance crews arrived en masse for the video shoot. Photographs from the set of the video appeared on the internet in early May. The video features M.I.A. singing and dancing in serene surroundings with vibrant, neon colours and animation graphics, accompanied by several male dancers of the different dance crews in Jamaica. One scene sees M.I.A. dancing around a defunct car. The video premiered on M.I.A.'s official website and MySpace page on 10 June 2007. In the "Making of 'Boyz' video" feature, Arulpragasam stated she "wanted the frame to end up looking just like ripped-off flyer posters
Flyposting
Flyposting is a guerilla marketing tactic through the act of placing advertising posters or flyers in legal or illegal places. In the United States, these posters are known as bandit signs, snipe signs, or street spam. Posters are adhered to construction site barricades, building facades, in...
." She took the video to England, before completing graphics for it in New York. Sam Lewis of Drowned in Sound
Drowned in Sound
DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:...
called the video "ludicrously colourful", comparing it favorably to the cover artwork of Kala.
Live performances
During the performance of "Boyz" at the Flow Festival in 2010, the songwriter brought a group of men onstage to dance with her.Track listings and formats
Promo CD- "Boyz" – 3:28
- "Boyz" [a cappella] – 3:00
- "Boyz" [instrumental] – 3:29
12" vinyl
- "Boyz" [album version] – 3:28
U.S. CD single (Enhanced EP)/USB wristband
- "Boyz" – 3:28
- "Boyz" [a cappella] – 3:00
- "Boyz" [instrumental] – 3:29
- Photos
- Remixes
- Video
- Making of the Video Part 1
Charts
| Chart (2007) | Peak |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Singles Sales | 7 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales chart is the sales component chart of Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. It is not the R&B subset of The Hot 100 Singles Sales, but rather a separate panel of sales of commercial singles in the urban market... |
13 |
| Canadian Singles Chart Canadian Singles Chart The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays.... |
7 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales | 3 |
| Chart (2008) | Peak |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Pop 100 Pop 100 The Pop 100 was a songs chart that debuted in February 2005 and was released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States until its discontinuation in 2009... |
99 |