Paper Planes
Encyclopedia
"Paper Planes" is a song recorded by musician M.I.A.
for her second studio album Kala
released in 2007. The song was written by Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam, Topper Headon
, Mick Jones
, Wesley "Diplo" Pentz, Paul Simonon
, Joe Strummer
and produced by Diplo with additional production by Switch
. The song is a denouement of stereotypical perceptions of immigrants, violence and M.I.A.'s own visa troubles while recording her third album. She said in an interview "I was having this stupid visa problem and I didn’t know what it was, aside from them thinking that I might [sic] fly a plane into the Trade Center—which is the only reason that they would put me through this...". She chose to do the song's famous chorus in sound effects rather than in full spoken word and recorded children singing the words, saying listeners could interpret the song's protagonist as being anyone from street hustlers to gun-selling corporations. "Paper Planes" was made available for download in August 2007 and released as the album's third single on February 11, 2008.
The song includes a sample of "Straight to Hell
" by The Clash
. "Paper Planes" is a downtempo rap song ballad, with a folk style melody considered less dance influenced than the other songs of the album. The song has been widely acclaimed among music critics, who complimented the song's music direction, sample and lyrics, reaffirming that the song continued M.I.A.'s political dance revolution in music. The EP Paper Planes - Homeland Security Remixes was released with the single simultaneously. "Paper Planes" appeared in the film trailers for the film Pineapple Express
and the documentary Capitalism: A Love Story
and featured in the film Slumdog Millionaire
and its soundtrack in 2008. It achieved much commercial success, peaking in the top 20 in some countries in Europe, as well as Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, where it reached the top ten of seven Billboard charts and peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100
. This made "Paper Planes" her first top 20 record in the U.K. and her latest top ten hit in Canada after "Boyz
". It reached two positions higher than "Boyz" to top the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales
chart. The song charted in numerous other countries worldwide and is to date XL Recordings
best selling single. As of October 2011, "Paper Planes" has been certified three times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America
in the U.S. and the Canadian Recording Industry Association
in Canada, becoming the 29th most downloaded song in the digital era in the United States, and has been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand
in New Zealand.
On 3 December 2008, the song was nominated for the Record of the Year
at the 51st Grammy Awards
. It was sampled in rappers T.I.
and Jay-Z
's single "Swagga Like Us
". She gave a well received performance of this song and "Paper Planes" at the Grammy ceremony on the night she expected her first son's birth. Several publications ranked "Paper Planes" as one of the best songs of the year and of all-time. Its release is ranked number 50 in The Guardian
s list of the 50 key events in the history of world and folk music, praising it for having turned globalisation inside out. An accompanying music video
for the song was directed by Bernard Gourley and it was filmed in New York, U.S.. The video showed M.I.A. walking and dancing with friends along the streets of the city and paper planes flying overhead. M.I.A. sells sandwiches from a van to several other New Yorkers. Critics praised the video for being simple and perfect for the themes of the song. M.I.A. performed the song at several shows including the Late Show with David Letterman
and added the song to her setlists of her second and third major concert tours, Kala Tour and People vs. Money Tour
, where it was well appreciated by fans.
and in London where it includes kids from Brixton
singing on the chorus; the song was one of the last written for Kala, recorded soon after she regained entry to the U.S.. The song, which epitomizes the lyrical content of Kala, satirizes U.S. immigration's perception of visa-seeking foreigners and immigrants from the Third World
. The track stems slightly from M.I.A.'s family history and from M.I.A.'s own frustration at American government visits to her official website following the release of her debut album Arular
in 2005, a refusal to grant her a work visa
to record her second album in the U.S. in 2006 despite several previous travels to the country before and after her debut album's release, coupled with her brief presence on the U.S. Homeland Security Risk List in 2006 due to her politically charged lyrics. M.I.A. has openly discussed the origin of the song, saying "I was thinking about living [in Bed-Stuy], waking up every morning—it’s such an African neighborhood. I was going to get patties
at my local and just thinking that really the worst thing that anyone can say [to someone these days] is some shit like: ”What I wanna do is come and get your money.” People don’t really feel like immigrants or refugees contribute to culture in any way. That they’re just leeches that suck from whatever. So in the song I say "All I wanna do is [sound of gun shooting and reloading, cash register opening] and take your money." I did it in sound effects. It’s up to you how you want to interpret. America is so obsessed with money, I’m sure they’ll get it."
She added that she felt that listeners could interpret the gunshots and cash register ringing in the song's chorus as coming from any gun-toter, telling an interviewer "You can either apply it on a street level and go, oh, you’re talking about somebody robbing you and saying I’m going to take your money. But, really, it could be a much bigger idea: someone’s selling you guns and making money. Selling weapons and the companies that manufacture guns — that’s probably the biggest moneymaker in the world." Acknowledging that her heavily politicized lyrics in all of her compositions were "a bit of a jump for people", she told Carolyn E. Davis of MTV
in April 2005 that not talking about her experiences would disqualify her as an artist, noting that "the other point I was making referencing the violence I had seen in Sri Lanka is, if we're going to invest so much money in creating wars around the world, that's quite a given thing. If you've seen somebody get shot and if you've seen a bomb go off, then you've given me total access to talk about it — because you've made that a part of my life. I didn't ask for nobody to bomb my school
, but if they did, I would have the right to talk about it. And if people are uncomfortable, then they should think twice before they go off and hit random buildings." M.I.A has expressed surprise at the song's wide commercial success, telling Rolling Stone
in October 2008, "I always took pride in being a little underground — it really is a very unlikely record to cross over."
rap
ballad
and alternative dance
song. Chris Power of BBC Collective terms the song as inventing a new genre - "gangsta shoegaze". "Paper Planes" follows the "nu world" music style that M.I.A. categorizes Kala as presenting. According to the digital music sheet published at musicnotes.com, the song is written in the key
of D major
, with a beat of 86 beats per minute
. M.I.A.'s vocal range in the song spans one Octave
in the western music scale, from the lower note of F♯3 to the higher note of F♯4. "Paper Planes" incorporates elements of folk music
and consists of "collapsing euphoric" synths and a "glock-popping" rhythm.
Fraser McAlpine of BBC Radio 1
compared the vocals favorably to those of "Boyz", describing them as "icy and distant" in the verse
, giving way to a playground chant. M.I.A. has said that the song was written and recorded quickly in the morning and in one go, without the singer having brushed her teeth, which contributed to the vocals being "a bit weird". She also said that this is something she aims for in her vocal style when recording in the studio. She joked to Spin
in December 2008 that the song "could be a rip-off of "Like A Virgin
" but you'd never know because I'm that out of tune", adding that recording the song downtempo
and departing from the denser compositions on the rest of the album was a risk she was willing to take. Eric Grandy of The Stranger
described the chorus
' gunshots as Rock and roll
swindle as anti-colonial cash register liberation, and integral to the song's meaning.
M.I.A. revealed that the track was written as her and her American collaborator Diplo were breaking up in their three year relationship and that the latter came up with the idea to sample the track "Straight to Hell" by London band The Clash on the song, recorded almost thirty years prior. A video of both recording the track surfaced online. Ben Thomson of The Guardian, citing Jon Hassell
and cultural theorist Hillel Schwartz's observations about the political implications of African folk music's genesis and sampling music in the urban west, comments on sampling in the context of the song and its aims, stating "sampling is what imperialists did when they colonised 'undeveloped' lands, calling theft 'development'. Sampling is [also] what ghettoised colonies do in revolt against property laws wired around them." According to Thomson, "Paper Planes" gives the post-colonial folk/hip-hop rapprochement a human face, who also said "the fact that this goal was achieved with the help of a sample from Straight to Hell by the Clash – who'd aimed for the same ideological bull's-eye decades before but not quite hit it – was truly the spicing on the samosa." Identifying with the ethos of The Clash, but not the "corporate, jock-rock that passes for punk today" M.I.A. told the Montreal Mirror
"I do feel like a loner doing this, and I think punk is born out of a certain spirit that relates to that[...]You have to feel like nobody on the planet understands you, and you have to have teenage angst, basically, even after you grow up." She stated her views towards contemporary punk mirrored those towards contemporary hip hop
and the mainstream American scene, objecting not to the depiction of women but more the treatment and reception of female artists.
upon the release of Kala on August 8, 2007. On 11 February 2008, the song "Paper Planes", the third single from the album, and the Paper Planes - Homeland Security Remixes EP were released digitally in the UK, and in America the next day. The single was released via 7digital
on February 11 and on iTunes on February 12. The Paper Planes - Homeland Security Remixes EP, featuring various mixes of "Paper Planes", was released physically as a CD single
three weeks later. The 7digital EP
includes Blaqstarr
's remix of "Paper Planes", with rap contributions from tourmates Rye Rye
and Afrikan Boy
. This remix was previously uploaded to M.I.A.'s MySpace
account. The "Paper Planes (featuring Bun B
and Rich Boy
- Diplo's Street Remix)", which had circulated on the internet beforehand appears on the EP; in addition, the EP contains remixes of the song by DFA Records
and Scottie B, and a remix of opening Kala track "Bamboo Banga" by DJ Eli
. On iTunes, the tracklist differs slightly, with the "Bamboo Banga" remix replaced with a remix of "Paper Planes" by Ad-Rock. A new physical single version of "Paper Planes" was released in the UK on 13 October 2008.
In July M.I.A. began the full KALA Tour with dates in the United States before going on to play a number of festivals
in Europe
and America during which songs from Kala were performed. "Paper Planes" is usually performed as her encore song. After dates in Asia
, she returned to America for a series of shows in October and November, before ending the year with concerts in the UK. The tour continued during the first half of 2008 under the banner of the People Vs. Money Tour
with further dates in North America, although the planned European leg of the tour was eventually cancelled. She performed her last date at the Bonnaroo Music Festival
in June 2008 after "Paper Planes" had seen some chart success, revealing her intentions to retire from the music industry and work on other art projects, start a family, go back to college and make a film. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly
in August 2008, she explained that she stopped touring after the show and "didn’t want to make music again, as she was quite happy to leave it all behind", but that her mother's increased belief in her coupled with the increased chart success of "Paper Planes" during her hiatus encouraged her to make another record.
M.I.A. performed "Paper Planes" live on American television for the first time on September 13, 2007 on the CBS talk show Late Show with David Letterman, three weeks after the release of the album. The American rapper Kanye West
, who had wanted to collaborate with M.I.A. on his second album
in 2005 emailed her during Christmas 2007, telling the singer he listened to the song repeatedly. His interest in the song culminated in the recording of the track "Swagga Like Us
". M.I.A. broke her hiatus in October 2008 by performing several songs including "Swagga Like Us" with T.I. and "Paper Planes" with her new label
signee Rye Rye and N.E.R.D. at the Diesel XXX party at Pier 3 in Brooklyn, United States where it was revealed that M.I.A. was pregnant with her first child. Following her performance of "Paper Planes" at the 2009 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
, she dedicated the song to the photographer Shawn Mortensen who died the previous week.
She performed "Paper Planes" and "Swagga Like Us" live at the 51st Grammy Awards
ceremony with the musicians West, T.I., Jay-Z and Lil Wayne
on her son's expected birth delivery date on February 8 2009. She appeared on the red carpet wearing a blue and teal patterned, multi-tiered mini-dress designed by Manish Arora
, that "both embraced and accentuated her full-bodied shape" and on stage wearing a polka-dot dress ensemble designed by Henry Holland
. Reactions to her dresses at the ceremony were mixed. Verena von Pfetten of Yahoo described her performance dress as "show-stoppingly sheer" and included it on the list of "The Grammy's Most Memorable Outfits of All-Time." Tracey Lomrantz and Susan Cernek of Glamour
included the dresses in their Best Dressed lists, praising M.I.A. for sticking to her signature style and "having fun" with her maternity wear fashion. Jocelyn Vena of MTV was less enthusiastic, saying of her Arora dress "there's no excuse for wearing a blue-and-green printed dress that made her look like a globe
." M.I.A. later tweeted a picture of her 5-month old son wearing a small version of the Holland dress. Modelled after a 1950's performance in the main showroom of Las Vegas' Sands Hotel, the five artists performed to a standing ovation at the ceremony. Shaheem Reid of MTV commented of her performance "M.I.A. is a G! Let's never question her standing in hip-hop." Mike Bruno, writing in Entertainment Weekly, demanded that the singer be given a greater solo at the ceremony in future. Rosie Swash of The Guardian described her performance at the ceremony as "barnstorming", and noted the different ways, following the performance, that Oscar producers suggested M.I.A. could perform "O...Saya" at the 81st Academy Awards
ceremony a few days later. Korin Miller of Daily News New York stated the singer "nailed" her Grammy performance. Ben Thomson of The Guardian commented "by claiming the right to be on that stage, she's expanding the "us" of the sampled lyric to include all the hard-pressed quarriers of hip-hop's musical raw materials, and women, and people who aren't American – at a stroke. Not bad going for a few minutes' work on a night when you'd planned to have a baby anyway."
. In a track-by-track review for Kala, Eric Grandy of The Stranger
noted that the song contained more conceptual layers, musical information, and lyrical self-reference than seemingly possible in a three-and-a-half minute pop song, saying it was "the standout track" on an album full of contenders, Kala's "most exciting synthesis of the political and the pop" and its chorus, "a sly, funny acknowledgement of the economics behind M.I.A.'s status as an exoticized sex symbol." This was somewhat echoed by Michael Hubbard of MusicOMH
who noted the track's humour and called the song "one of the many standouts" of the album. The Observer
's Emma Warren also marked the song as a highlight, calling it "a career high" and comparing it favorably to an internationalist indie record made by Gorrilaz. Similarly, Evan McGarvey of Stylus Magazine
called the song "narcotic, gorgeous".
Dan Raper of PopMatters
said that "the drug-slinging persona of “Paper Planes”" joined tracks such as "Bamboo Banga" in providing plenty of hustle on the album, however it was M.I.A.'s meditation on the "unfortunate influence of rap’s portrayal of ‘the game’ on those in the developing world" that "obviously means the most to her." Todd Martens of Billboard
described M.I.A. on the song as "a revolutionary leading a class war". Writing for NME
, Alex Miller commented that "Paper Planes" was Kalas "only real pop moment [...]" but that it "sabotages any FM potential by crafting its infectious chorus around four crystal clear gunshots". Describing the song as "soft, soaring", he added that the song's The Clash sample was the clearest indication of where M.I.A. sees herself, "as the inheritor of true rebel music in an era of corporate punks". Jon Pareles of Blender
joked that "by M.I.A. standards [Paper Planes] is almost a ballad", naming it a highlight of Kala. Bill Lamb of About.com
claimed it served as a reaffirmation of popular music, deeming it "one of the most bracing pop hits in recent history" and that the song's patchwork world beat style "expands the boundaries of current hit pop music". Joey Guerra of Houston Chronicle
described the song's impact alongside the rest of the album, saying "Even amid so much rocket-fueled noise, standout "Paper Planes" causes its own commotion." Citing her lyric where she declares "Catch me at the border I got visas in my name," he further added that "with music this vital, [America] should immediately extend an open-door policy to the globe-trotting MC's stunning international flow." Fraser McAlpine, writing for BBC Radio 1
compared the artist's vocals favorably to those of "Boyz", describing them as "icy and distant" in the verse, giving way to a "catchy, juvenile playground chant" that made both songs "earworms". McAlpine noted that the power of the song lay in the discordance between the melody of the singing in the verses and the backing, saying "there's something very calm and serene about the music, and the slight mismatch in tone with the melody slaps you around the ears, demanding your attention, and forcing you to listen to the words. And when you do, and realise it's a dead-eyed skit on ruthless business practices, it just multiplies the queasy power of the song". Ben Thomson of The Guardian praised the song's wider cultural significance, ranking the single's release number 50 in the newspaper's list of the 50 key events in the history of world and folk music, for having turned globalisation inside out.
Writing for Clash Magazine
, Colm Larkin said that the album's penultimate track was a "downtempo masterpiece that’s like a torch song for the world’s disaffected and poor with its chorus line", adding that with the song, the singer-songwriter remained "one of the best things to happen to 21st century music." In his review of Kala, Mark Pytlik of Pitchforkmedia wrote that the song was "an island tinged nursery rhyme." Writing for GQ
, Gary Shteyngart
praised M.I.A.'s self-sampling ethos, noting her profound sense of "just how fucked-up and unglamorous it is to grow up at the bottom of both First World and Third World societies." In the line "No one on the corner had swagger like us / Hit me on the burner prepaid wireless" he writes that "it's the prepaid wireless that's genius: the tiny sociological detail of the immigrant buying prepaid minutes as opposed to the monthly plan, the daily calculations amounting to an extra fifty bucks a month sent back to Chiapas, Mexico, or Lomé, Togo, that rings true to those of us who came to the West from more dysfunctional parts of the world." Tom Breihan of the Village Voice praised the song as continuing the "confounding, ambiguous political subtexts" that M.I.A.'s music carried, burying its meaning under layers of implication and forcing thorny and ambiguous questions about violence and advocacy, calling "Paper Planes" "a light and airy and bewitchingly pretty song" that also rode on its sample and chorus. Karim Maksoud of This Is Fake DIY
called "Paper Planes" an "immediately listenable" track that "showcases all the coarse fatalism, superficiality and backstabbing acerbity of the modern urban life, both in veracious lyrics, the scratched aesthetic and the lethargic, sedated bassline and backing beat maintained throughout." He concluded that the song emanated M.I.A.'s life experience and background "relentlessly" and presented a "tuneful amalgam of influences and exotic dynamic, one of the most promising for a while."
in Australia, becoming available for download and radio airplay in the country upon the release of Kala that year. "Paper Planes" placed number six on the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop
poll of the top 40 singles of 2007, and was ranked the top single on the same poll of 2008. The song ranked at number 3 on the "10 Best Singles of 2008" list by American magazine Entertainment Weekly
and number one on the "The 20 Best Songs of 2008" list by American magazine Spin. "Paper Planes (featuring Bun B and Rich Boy Remix)" placed at number four on Pitchfork Media
's Top 100 Tracks of 2007, while the publication placed the remix as the third-best song of the 2000s. Blender
s Top 144 Songs of 2008 featured "Paper Planes" at number 2, with the "Paper Planes (DFA remix)" at number 63. Les Inrockuptibles
positioned "Paper Planes" at number 2 on its End of Year Best of List. Heineken España
named "Paper Planes" the Top song of 2007, and placed it number 2 on its list of The 50 Best International Songs of the 2000s. Slant Magazine and Rolling Stone Brasil named "Paper Planes" the best song of 2008.
The song was nominated in the category for Record of the Year at the 2009 Grammy Awards. "Swagga Like Us", co-written by M.I.A. was nominated in the category for Best Rap Song
at the awards. Entertainment Weekly
put "Paper Planes" on its end-of-the-decade, "Best-Of" list, saying "Admit it: That gunfire-and-cash-registers hook was stuck in your head for weeks after seeing the Pineapple Express trailer (or, uh, Slum-dog Millionaire) in 2008." "Paper Planes" placed number five on Rolling Stone
s 2009 list of the 50 Best Songs of the Decade. Rolling Stone also placed "Paper Planes" at number 236 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
" in the 2010 updated list. The same year, VH1
placed the song at number 89 on its list of the "100 Greatest Songs of the 00's." "Paper Planes" was ranked number 12 on Stylus Magazine
's list of "The Top 100 Singles of the 2000s." Slant ranked the song number 2 on its "Best of the Aughts: Singles," - The Top 100 Singles of the 2000's decade. "Paper Planes" was positioned number 4 on Rockdelux
s list of the "15 Best Singles of the 2000s." The Guardian included "Paper Planes" in its 2009 list "1000 Songs Everyone Must Hear." NME
ranked the song number 8 on the publication's 2008 best of the year list. In October 2011, the magazine placed it at number 15 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".
has covered the song in live performances and "Paper Planes" has been performed by Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya
as his own rendition "Tengazako". American indie rock band Built to Spill
covered "Paper Planes" at their live performances in Italy and the English rapper Dizzee Rascal
has covered the song at his live performances. Detroit rapper Esham
used "Paper Planes" as the basis for his song "Keys to the City". The song has been sampled in live performances by the musician Lowkey
who raps "All MPs wanna do is … take your money". "Paper Planes has been covered live by London band The Clientele
.
The song's line "No one on the corner has swagger like us" was sampled by West in the song "Swagga Like Us", a song by American rappers T.I. and Jay-Z, West and Lil Wayne. In September 2008 American rapper 50 Cent
; State Property
members Young Chris
and Freeway
, as well as Jim Jones
released their own remixes of the song. Asked about her feelings regarding how, despite being over a year old, the track was still appearing on high profile mixtapes, she told MTV "I think it's cool when you bring all these rappers and artists like the Clash together... it's cool that they support it. It's so many people that be like, 'I don't know what you're talking about.' It's kind of like 'This is the sh--, and we think it's hot" before adding that having made a track that was organic, creative and not made with marketing be liked and find chart success was satisfying and interesting for the musician, even if charts didn't compute with her.
"Paper Planes" soundtracked the theatrical trailer for the comedy film Pineapple Express starring Seth Rogen
and James Franco
. A "red-band" trailer for the film Pineapple Express, featuring the song leaked
in February 2008, before Sony Pictures had the video removed from YouTube
within a few days of its posting. The film's makers had been keen on including the song in the film's main trailer and approached M.I.A.'s U.S. label Interscope Records
for permission. She added "Interscope asked me and I was, like, well, since it’s just the trailer, that’s cool. I didn’t really think twice about it" stating she would have thought more carefully about permitting the song's use if it was in the main film, "scrutinizing what scene they were using it in and stuff like that". Patrick Goldstein's Summer Movie Posse of the Los Angeles Times
described its incorporation at the time as "the most impressive use of M.I.A.'s 'Paper Planes' ever". "Paper Planes" and the DFA Records remix both appear in Danny Boyle
's drama Slumdog Millionaire; the remix also appears in the film Hancock
. Boyle, who took the song with him to India and listened to it during the shoot, described it as a crucial one and "a key song" he had in mind for his film from the onset, before its use in the trailer of Pineapple Express, telling Rodrigo Perez of MTV "[...]originally it was featured very early on in the film, but then we moved it to the halfway mark, and then the song was used in ‘Pineapple Express’ [...] What can you do?" "Paper Planes" was used in the trailer for Michael Moore
's documentary Capitalism: A Love Story.
Rap rock supergroup Street Sweeper Social Club
perform a live cover of "Paper Planes" at their shows and a studio version appears on their 2010 EP The Ghetto Blaster EP
. "Paper Planes" is parodied by Funny or Die
with a music video released on July 27, 2010. The Los Angeles Dodgers
used "Paper Planes" as their victory song during their three-week effort to win the National League West
title in the 2008 season
in the United States. " Paper Planes" is covered by the pop punk band Freshman 15
, and by the band This Century for the compilation album Punk Goes Pop 3
.
in late February 2008 due to strong digital downloads. By late March 2008, the song reached number 3 on the US Hot Singles Sales chart and topped the US Hot Dance Singles Sales
chart, becoming M.I.A.'s first single to top the chart after her debut "Galang
" reached number 11 and "Boyz" peaked at number 3. After its appearance in the trailer for the film Pineapple Express, the song entered the Pop 100
chart at number 99, and the Bubbling Under Hot 100 at number 14 in the United States. By early May 2008, the song had climbed to number 4 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, and number 80 on the U.S. Billboard Pop 100, overtaking the peak of 99 achieved on the chart by M.I.A.'s previous single "Boyz". "Paper Planes" debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Songs
at the same time at number 57, climbing to number 71 on the Pop 100 chart. The song debuted on the Chilean Top 100 Singles Chart at number 95 in mid May 2008 before climbing to number 91 the next week.
In Europe, the song debuted on the Belgian Singles Chart peaking at 18 in June 2008. The song rebounded on the US charts following use in the Pineapple Express trailer the next month, entering the Billboard Hot 100
chart at position 55, with sales of 42,000 downloads. In subsequent weeks, it continued to climb the chart, with download sales totaling 888,000 the following month. In it's ninth week on the chart, "Paper Planes" rose from number five to number four on the Hot 100 where it peaked. It received heavy airplay on Mainstream
, Pop, Alternative
, and some Urban Contemporary formatted stations. As of August 2009, the song sold over three million units in the United States. "Paper Planes" has been certified triple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America
in the U.S. and the Canadian Recording Industry Association
in Canada, becoming the 29th most downloaded song in the digital era in the United States,as of November 2011, it has sold 3,68 million digital copies there, and has been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand
in New Zealand. The song climbed to number 33 on the Chilean Singles Chart in July 2008. "Paper Planes" debuted on the México Top 100 Singles Chart at number 85, the Isreal Singles Chart at number 14 and the Brazil Hot 100 at number 32. On 7 September 2008, "Paper Planes" entered the UK Singles Chart
at number 69 on downloads alone and peaked at number 19. Following its appearance in the film Slumdog Millionaire, the song re-entered the UK Singles Chart on 15 February 2009 at number 33. The song spent twenty seven weeks on the chart, and reappeared on the singles chart in January 2010 at number 61, a position it retained for one week.
"Paper Planes" is to date XL Recordings
best selling single. Eric R. Danton of the Hartford Courant noted that the song's success "speaks to the idea that the best pop music
rarely originates with the major label corporate music machine that exists to sell pop music" but rose from underground artists with something to say, offering significant lessons to the music industry in an era of declining music sales and general financial turmoil.
for the song was shot in December 2007 in one day in Bedford-Stuyvesant
, Brooklyn
, New York
. It was directed by Bernard Gourley. The video is M.I.A.'s first filmed in the United States. Initially planed to be shot in a factory on the border of Ecuador
, the filming location was changed to accommodate M.I.A.'s time constraints due to touring commitments in the United States. The video was filmed during one day in the city, which she had free on the American leg of her KALA Tour after 4 months of concerts. It was made available on MTV
's website on 15 December and premiered on M.I.A.'s YouTube account on 16 December, 2007. The video debuted on TRL
on 17 December 2007.
In the video, several paper planes fly over New York City. M.I.A. appears as an immigrant who sells sandwiches from a van to several other New Yorkers. At the sound of the gunshots, quick shots of street signs, people, and restaurant signs appear. She can be seen wearing a Metallica
Ride the Lightning
shirt in several parts of the music video. Nigerian rapper Afrikan Boy
joins M.I.A. in serving street food on New York City's streets in exchange for buyer's chains, watches, and cash—among those stopping by the cart are Mike D and Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys
, where Mike D.'s Rolex is exchanged for food. M.I.A. uploaded the video onto her YouTube
account in February 2008.
"Paper Planes" peaked at number 1 on MuchOnDemand
s Daily Ten and number 1 on TRL
in January 2008, two weeks after its release. It appeared at Number 56 on BET
's Notarized: Top 100 Videos of 2008 countdown.
based in Colombo
stated that M.I.A.'s music was not played on Sri Lankan radio or television - which, like music retailers and night clubs there, chose not to stock or play her records due to political pressure from the Sri Lankan government as the Sinhala-Tamil conflict
in Sri Lanka dragged on. Instead, fans of the artist on the island relied on certain social media websites on the internet to access her work. The success of "Paper Planes" paralleling M.I.A.'s condemnation of government and army atrocities as amounting to "systematic genocide
" and ethnic cleansing
resulted in death threats being made against her. Touré
, writing in The Daily Beast
noted that this was in keeping with the governments' censorship and regulation of news flowing out of the island, which, along with government restrictions to the northeastern theatre of the war in late 2008 meant "the world had heard little" of the atrocities inflicted by the state against Tamils. An American
Sinhalese rapper named DeLon
circulated a viral
YouTube video in which he rapped over "Paper Planes" and accused M.I.A. of "supporting terrorism
" by using images of the tiger and discussing violence in her lyrics, showing graphic images of violence purportedly linked to the LTTE rebel group. After some media ran a story on this, M.I.A responded that her music is the voice of a civilian refugee and that she was not willing to discuss anything with someone looking for self-promotion. Colombo based writer Thomas Fuller of the New York Times wrote an article about M.I.A.'s statements against the Vanni onslaught, stating that her music's ambiguity and her criticism of the government's conduct had "not endeared her to the island's Sinhalese majority". Zach Baron of the Village Voice accused the newspaper of using "chintzy, ad-hominem allegations" on M.I.A.'s work in the piece, imploring the paper to use its "vaunted" access instead to inquire as to why the government would not let aid through to the Vanni. M.I.A. said of the situation in Sri Lanka in 2010 "Every single Tamil person who's alive today, who's seen how the world does nothing, has to find a way to exist that isn't harboring bitterness and hate and revenge." GQ writer Gary Shteyngart notes that "to her Sinhalese detractors, her music is precisely that form of revenge."
The "Paper Planes" music video was censored by MTV
in December 2007, who had also banned the video for M.I.A.'s single "Sunshowers
". In this version, M.I.A.'s vocals were doubled, the gun sounds replaced with popping sounds, and the word "weed" replaced with the word "seed". The producers of Pineapple Express asked for the word to be similarly changed before use, a request M.I.A. found "ridiculous, cause the whole movie's about weed
." On December 16, 2007, following some fan disapproval of the leaked MTV version, M.I.A. stated in a MySpace
entry that MTV's decision to change the sound disappointed and angered her, adding that MTV had "sabotaged" a music video made more safe and mainstream than her regular videos. The song was similarly censored during her live performance on the Late Show with David Letterman to her visible surprise, an action she had not agreed to. The chorus effects during the sound check of her Late Show performance were different from what was played live during the taping. At her concert at the Austin City Limits
a few days after the show, she spoke more of the incident, thanking David Letterman
onstage "for letting her into the American mainstream." A writer for New York
magazine felt the issue of MTV censoring "Paper Planes" was a non-controversy as the edited clip had been removed from MTV following fan-pressure and replaced, noting "they've been [censoring gun sounds and imagery] since 1997, according to Wikipedia. What does surprise us is that MTV ever considered showing the video at all. We had no idea they still aired music videos, much less ones by talented artists like M.I.A. If anything, it likely airs at odd hours when nobody's watching." Tom Breihan of The Village Voice also noted this to be part of a general trend by networks like MTV and BET and radio towards rap songs such as those by 50 cent where any references to drugs, sex and violence were removed and replaced, concluding that this was a double standard approach to rap artists' work compared to songs by Green Day
and My Chemical Romance
. Commenting that "Paper Planes" is a "song that deserves to start a few arguments, and it should go out into the wider world with its argument-starting potential left intact," Breihan noted that although the uncensored version would not inspire rioting
in the streets, more listeners opted to download music as mainstream "cultural outlets in which [...] music makes itself heard are increasingly afraid of offending anyone, ever, for any reason".
(Released 11 February 2008)
U.S. CD / Digital U.S. iTunes EP
(Released 12 February 2008)
XL 12" Vinyl EP
(Released 24 March 2008)
UK CD
UK 7-inch
Europe iTunes EP
Source:
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 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...
released in 2007. The song was written by Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam, Topper Headon
Topper Headon
Headon was extensively interviewed for the Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten documentary film about the late Clash frontman. He related his experiences during this period, how he became addicted to heroin and how there were problems before his dismissal...
, Mick Jones
Mick Jones (The Clash)
Michael Geoffrey "Mick" Jones is the former lead guitarist, secondary vocalist and co-founder for the British punk rock band The Clash until his dismissal in 1983. He went on to form the band Big Audio Dynamite with Don Letts before line-up changes led to the formation of Big Audio Dynamite II and...
, Wesley "Diplo" Pentz, Paul Simonon
Paul Simonon
Paul Gustave Simonon is an English musician and artist best known as the bass guitarist for punk rock band The Clash. Recent work includes his involvement in the album The Good, the Bad & the Queen with Damon Albarn, Simon Tong and Tony Allen, released in January 2007...
, Joe Strummer
Joe Strummer
John Graham Mellor , best remembered by his stage name Joe Strummer, was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist of the British punk rock band The Clash. His musical experience included his membership in The 101ers, Latino Rockabilly War, The Mescaleros and The Pogues, in...
and produced by Diplo with additional production by 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 is a denouement of stereotypical perceptions of immigrants, violence and M.I.A.'s own visa troubles while recording her third album. She said in an interview "I was having this stupid visa problem and I didn’t know what it was, aside from them thinking that I might [sic] fly a plane into the Trade Center—which is the only reason that they would put me through this...". She chose to do the song's famous chorus in sound effects rather than in full spoken word and recorded children singing the words, saying listeners could interpret the song's protagonist as being anyone from street hustlers to gun-selling corporations. "Paper Planes" was made available for download in August 2007 and released as the album's third single on February 11, 2008.
The song includes a sample of "Straight to Hell
Straight to Hell (song)
"Straight to Hell" is a song by The Clash, from their album Combat Rock. It was released as a double A-side single with "Should I Stay or Should I Go" on 17 September 1982 in 12" and 7" vinyl format format. A slow, mournful ballad, it is one of the most popular songs in the Clash canon due to its...
" by The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
. "Paper Planes" is a downtempo rap song ballad, with a folk style melody considered less dance influenced than the other songs of the album. The song has been widely acclaimed among music critics, who complimented the song's music direction, sample and lyrics, reaffirming that the song continued M.I.A.'s political dance revolution in music. The EP Paper Planes - Homeland Security Remixes was released with the single simultaneously. "Paper Planes" appeared in the film trailers for the film Pineapple Express
Pineapple Express (film)
Pineapple Express is a 2008 American stoner action comedy directed by David Gordon Green, written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and starring Rogen and James Franco. Producer Judd Apatow, who previously worked with Rogen and Goldberg on Knocked Up and Superbad, assisted in developing the story,...
and the documentary Capitalism: A Love Story
Capitalism: A Love Story
Capitalism: A Love Story is a 2009 American documentary film directed, written by and starring Michael Moore. The film centers on the late-2000s financial crisis and the recovery stimulus, while putting forward an indictment of the current economic order in the United States and capitalism in general...
and featured in the film Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup...
and its soundtrack in 2008. It achieved much commercial success, peaking in the top 20 in some countries in Europe, as well as Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, where it reached the top ten of seven Billboard charts and peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
. This made "Paper Planes" her first top 20 record in the U.K. and her latest top ten hit in Canada after "Boyz
Boyz (song)
"Boyz" is a song recorded by artist M.I.A. for her second album Kala . 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...
". It reached two positions higher than "Boyz" to top 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...
chart. The song charted in numerous other countries worldwide and is to date 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...
best selling single. As of October 2011, "Paper Planes" has been certified three times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
in the U.S. and the Canadian Recording Industry Association
Canadian Recording Industry Association
Music Canada is a Toronto-based, non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, artists, manufacture, production, promotion and distribution of music in Canada...
in Canada, becoming the 29th most downloaded song in the digital era in the United States, and has been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand
Recording Industry Association of New Zealand
The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand...
in New Zealand.
On 3 December 2008, the song was nominated for the Record of the Year
Grammy Award for Record of the Year
The Record of the Year is one of the four most prestigious Grammy Awards presented annually. It has been awarded since 1959.-History:The honorees through its history have been:*1959-1965: Artist only.*1966-1998: Artist and producer....
at the 51st Grammy Awards
51st Grammy Awards
The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA on February 8, 2009. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the biggest winners of the night, jointly winning five awards including Album of the Year and Record of the Year...
. It was sampled in rappers T.I.
T.I.
Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr. , better known by his stage name T.I., is an American rap artist, film and music producer, actor and author. He is also the founder and co-chief executive officer of Grand Hustle Records....
and 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...
's single "Swagga Like Us
Swagga Like Us
"Swagga Like Us" is a song by rappers T.I. and Jay-Z, released as the second single from T.I.'s sixth studio album, Paper Trail. It was slated to appear on Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3; however he later confirmed all songs with Auto-Tune were removed from the album. It was released on September 6, 2008....
". She gave a well received performance of this song and "Paper Planes" at the Grammy ceremony on the night she expected her first son's birth. Several publications ranked "Paper Planes" as one of the best songs of the year and of all-time. Its release is ranked number 50 in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
s list of the 50 key events in the history of world and folk music, praising it for having turned globalisation inside out. An 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...
for the song was directed by Bernard Gourley and it was filmed in New York, U.S.. The video showed M.I.A. walking and dancing with friends along the streets of the city and paper planes flying overhead. M.I.A. sells sandwiches from a van to several other New Yorkers. Critics praised the video for being simple and perfect for the themes of the song. M.I.A. performed the song at several shows including the Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...
and added the song to her setlists of her second and third major concert tours, Kala Tour and People vs. Money Tour
People Vs. Money Tour
The People vs. Money Tour was a 2008 M.I.A. concert tour in support of her studio album Kala. Concerts also featured songs from her debut album Arular. It began on 26 April 2008 and ended on June 13 in Manchester, Tennessee....
, where it was well appreciated by fans.
Background
"Paper Planes" was written and produced by M.I.A. and Diplo with additional production by Switch. It was recorded at the artist's home in Bedford-Stuyvesant, BrooklynBedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
Bedford-Stuyvesant is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Formed in 1930, the neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 3, Brooklyn Community Board 8 and Brooklyn Community Board 16. The neighborhood is patrolled by the NYPD's 79th and 81st...
and in London where it includes kids from Brixton
Brixton
Brixton is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in south London, England. It is south south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
singing on the chorus; the song was one of the last written for Kala, recorded soon after she regained entry to the U.S.. The song, which epitomizes the lyrical content of Kala, satirizes U.S. immigration's perception of visa-seeking foreigners and immigrants from the Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
. The track stems slightly from M.I.A.'s family history and from M.I.A.'s own frustration at American government visits to her official website following the release of her debut album 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...
in 2005, a refusal to grant her a work visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
to record her second album in the U.S. in 2006 despite several previous travels to the country before and after her debut album's release, coupled with her brief presence on the U.S. Homeland Security Risk List in 2006 due to her politically charged lyrics. M.I.A. has openly discussed the origin of the song, saying "I was thinking about living [in Bed-Stuy], waking up every morning—it’s such an African neighborhood. I was going to get patties
Pattie
Pattie may refer to:* Pattie , a fried mashed potato dish from Hull in England* Jamaican pattie, a pastry dish found in Jamaica* Patricia, a given name...
at my local and just thinking that really the worst thing that anyone can say [to someone these days] is some shit like: ”What I wanna do is come and get your money.” People don’t really feel like immigrants or refugees contribute to culture in any way. That they’re just leeches that suck from whatever. So in the song I say "All I wanna do is [sound of gun shooting and reloading, cash register opening] and take your money." I did it in sound effects. It’s up to you how you want to interpret. America is so obsessed with money, I’m sure they’ll get it."
She added that she felt that listeners could interpret the gunshots and cash register ringing in the song's chorus as coming from any gun-toter, telling an interviewer "You can either apply it on a street level and go, oh, you’re talking about somebody robbing you and saying I’m going to take your money. But, really, it could be a much bigger idea: someone’s selling you guns and making money. Selling weapons and the companies that manufacture guns — that’s probably the biggest moneymaker in the world." Acknowledging that her heavily politicized lyrics in all of her compositions were "a bit of a jump for people", she told Carolyn E. Davis of 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....
in April 2005 that not talking about her experiences would disqualify her as an artist, noting that "the other point I was making referencing the violence I had seen in Sri Lanka is, if we're going to invest so much money in creating wars around the world, that's quite a given thing. If you've seen somebody get shot and if you've seen a bomb go off, then you've given me total access to talk about it — because you've made that a part of my life. I didn't ask for nobody to bomb my school
Holy Family Convent, Jaffna
Holy Family Convent is a girls public provincial school in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. The school was established in 1845. It consists of both a Tamil and English convent.-History:...
, but if they did, I would have the right to talk about it. And if people are uncomfortable, then they should think twice before they go off and hit random buildings." M.I.A has expressed surprise at the song's wide commercial success, telling 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 October 2008, "I always took pride in being a little underground — it really is a very unlikely record to cross over."
Composition
"Paper Planes" is a worldbeatWorldbeat
Worldbeat is a music genre that primarily refers to a blending of Western pop music with traditional/folk or world music influences...
rap
Rap
Rap may refer to:*Rapping, performance in which rhyming lyrics are used, with or without musical accompaniment ; while an MC performs spoken verses in time to a beat/ melody**Hip hop subculture**Hip hop music...
ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
and alternative dance
Alternative dance
Alternative dance or indie dance is a musical genre that mixes rock subgenres with electronic dance music...
song. Chris Power of BBC Collective terms the song as inventing a new genre - "gangsta shoegaze". "Paper Planes" follows the "nu world" music style that M.I.A. categorizes Kala as presenting. According to the digital music sheet published at musicnotes.com, the song is written in the key
Key (music)
In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a specific key, such as in the key of C major or in the key of F-sharp. Sometimes the terms "major" or "minor" are appended, as in the key of A minor or in the...
of D major
D major
D major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature consists of two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor....
, with a beat of 86 beats per minute
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
. M.I.A.'s vocal range in the song spans one Octave
Octave
In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...
in the western music scale, from the lower note of F♯3 to the higher note of F♯4. "Paper Planes" incorporates elements of folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and consists of "collapsing euphoric" synths and a "glock-popping" rhythm.
Fraser McAlpine of 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...
compared the vocals favorably to those of "Boyz", describing them as "icy and distant" in the verse
Verse
- Poetry :* Verse , a metrical structure, a stanza* Blank verse is a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme* Free verse is a type of poetry written without the use of strict meter or rhyme, but is still recognized as poetry...
, giving way to a playground chant. M.I.A. has said that the song was written and recorded quickly in the morning and in one go, without the singer having brushed her teeth, which contributed to the vocals being "a bit weird". She also said that this is something she aims for in her vocal style when recording in the studio. She joked to Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
in December 2008 that the song "could be a rip-off of "Like A Virgin
Like a Virgin
Like a Virgin is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on November 12, 1984 by Sire Records. It was re-released worldwide in 1985, with the inclusion of the bonus track "Into the Groove". In 2001, Warner Bros. Records released a remastered version with two bonus...
" but you'd never know because I'm that out of tune", adding that recording the song downtempo
Downtempo
Downtempo is a laid-back electronic music style similar to ambient music, but usually with a beat or groove unlike the beatless forms of Ambient music. The beat is sometimes made from loops that have a hypnotic feeling...
and departing from the denser compositions on the rest of the album was a risk she was willing to take. Eric Grandy of The Stranger
The Stranger
- Fiction :* The Stranger , by Albert Camus* "The Stranger" , by J. D. Salinger* The Stranger , a 1987 collection of short stories by Gordon R...
described the chorus
Chorus
-Musical:* Choir, a vocal ensemble* Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound; signal processors design to simulate the effect* Refrain or chorus of a song, pre-chorus may refer to bridge...
' gunshots as Rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
swindle as anti-colonial cash register liberation, and integral to the song's meaning.
M.I.A. revealed that the track was written as her and her American collaborator Diplo were breaking up in their three year relationship and that the latter came up with the idea to sample the track "Straight to Hell" by London band The Clash on the song, recorded almost thirty years prior. A video of both recording the track surfaced online. Ben Thomson of The Guardian, citing Jon Hassell
Jon Hassell
Jon Hassell is an American trumpet player and composer. He is known for his influence in the world music scene and his unusual electronic manipulation of the trumpet sound.-Life and career:...
and cultural theorist Hillel Schwartz's observations about the political implications of African folk music's genesis and sampling music in the urban west, comments on sampling in the context of the song and its aims, stating "sampling is what imperialists did when they colonised 'undeveloped' lands, calling theft 'development'. Sampling is [also] what ghettoised colonies do in revolt against property laws wired around them." According to Thomson, "Paper Planes" gives the post-colonial folk/hip-hop rapprochement a human face, who also said "the fact that this goal was achieved with the help of a sample from Straight to Hell by the Clash – who'd aimed for the same ideological bull's-eye decades before but not quite hit it – was truly the spicing on the samosa." Identifying with the ethos of The Clash, but not the "corporate, jock-rock that passes for punk today" M.I.A. told the Montreal Mirror
Montreal Mirror
Montreal Mirror is a free English language alternative newsweekly based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with a circulation of 70,000, and reaches a quarter of a million readers per week. It is published by Communications Gratte-Ciel Ltée....
"I do feel like a loner doing this, and I think punk is born out of a certain spirit that relates to that[...]You have to feel like nobody on the planet understands you, and you have to have teenage angst, basically, even after you grow up." She stated her views towards contemporary punk mirrored those towards contemporary hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
and the mainstream American scene, objecting not to the depiction of women but more the treatment and reception of female artists.
Release and live performances
The song was made available for digital downloadMusic 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...
upon the release of Kala on August 8, 2007. On 11 February 2008, the song "Paper Planes", the third single from the album, and the Paper Planes - Homeland Security Remixes EP were released digitally in the UK, and in America the next day. The single was released via 7digital
7digital
7digital is a privately held digital media delivery company based in the United Kingdom, offering downloadable music, video and movies to customers primarily within major European markets...
on February 11 and on iTunes on February 12. The Paper Planes - Homeland Security Remixes EP, featuring various mixes of "Paper Planes", was released physically as a 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...
three weeks later. The 7digital 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...
includes Blaqstarr
Blaqstarr
Charles Smith, better known as Blaqstarr or DJ Blaqstarr, is a Baltimore, Maryland area rapper, singer, producer, and DJ...
's remix of "Paper Planes", with rap contributions from tourmates Rye Rye
Rye Rye
Rye Rye is the stage name of Ryeisha Berrain, an American rapper and dancer from Baltimore, Maryland, United States signed to N.E.E.T. Recordings. She is currently finishing work on her debut album, Go! Pop! Bang!, slated to be released some time in 2012.-Early career:Rye Rye began performing at...
and Afrikan Boy
Afrikan Boy
Olushola Ajose, better known by his stage name Afrikan Boy is a grime MC from Woolwich, London, England, originally from Nigeria. He made a guest appearance on the track "Hussel" from the M.I.A. album Kala, and is one of the initial artists M.I.A. wanted signed to her label in 2007, then titled...
. This remix was previously uploaded to M.I.A.'s MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
account. The "Paper Planes (featuring Bun B
Bun B
Bernard Freeman better known by his stage name Bun B, is an American rapper and was one half of the southern hip hop duo UGK . He is also a guest lecturer at Rice University located in Houston, Texas...
and Rich Boy
Rich Boy
Marece Richards , better known by his stage name Rich Boy, is an American rapper from Mobile, Alabama. He is best known for the hit single "Throw Some D's". His self-titled debut album was released in early 2007.- Early career :...
- Diplo's Street Remix)", which had circulated on the internet beforehand appears on the EP; in addition, the EP contains remixes of the song by DFA Records
DFA Records
DFA Records is an independent record label and production team, launched in September 2001 by Mo' Wax co-founder Tim Goldsworthy, musician James Murphy, and manager Jonathan Galkin. The label has an exclusive distribution deal with major record label EMI....
and Scottie B, and a remix of opening Kala track "Bamboo Banga" by DJ Eli
Eli Wilkie
Eli Wilkie is a DJ and record producer from Boston, MA who has been spinning for the past eight years around the nation, shaking up dance floors with his own blend of funky driving house music...
. On iTunes, the tracklist differs slightly, with the "Bamboo Banga" remix replaced with a remix of "Paper Planes" by Ad-Rock. A new physical single version of "Paper Planes" was released in the UK on 13 October 2008.
In July M.I.A. began the full KALA Tour with dates in the United States before going on to play a number of festivals
Music festival
A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...
in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and America during which songs from Kala were performed. "Paper Planes" is usually performed as her encore song. After dates in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, she returned to America for a series of shows in October and November, before ending the year with concerts in the UK. The tour continued during the first half of 2008 under the banner of the People Vs. Money Tour
People Vs. Money Tour
The People vs. Money Tour was a 2008 M.I.A. concert tour in support of her studio album Kala. Concerts also featured songs from her debut album Arular. It began on 26 April 2008 and ended on June 13 in Manchester, Tennessee....
with further dates in North America, although the planned European leg of the tour was eventually cancelled. She performed her last date at the Bonnaroo Music Festival
Bonnaroo Music Festival
The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual four day music festival created and produced by Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment, held at Great Stage Park on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee. It hosted its tenth annual event June 9–12, 2011...
in June 2008 after "Paper Planes" had seen some chart success, revealing her intentions to retire from the music industry and work on other art projects, start a family, go back to college and make a film. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
in August 2008, she explained that she stopped touring after the show and "didn’t want to make music again, as she was quite happy to leave it all behind", but that her mother's increased belief in her coupled with the increased chart success of "Paper Planes" during her hiatus encouraged her to make another record.
M.I.A. performed "Paper Planes" live on American television for the first time on September 13, 2007 on the CBS talk show Late Show with David Letterman, three weeks after the release of the album. The American rapper Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
, who had wanted to collaborate with M.I.A. on his second album
Late Registration
Late Registration is the second studio album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released August 30, 2005, on Roc-A-Fella Records. Recording sessions for the album took place over the course of a year at various recording studios located in New York City and Hollywood...
in 2005 emailed her during Christmas 2007, telling the singer he listened to the song repeatedly. His interest in the song culminated in the recording of the track "Swagga Like Us
Swagga Like Us
"Swagga Like Us" is a song by rappers T.I. and Jay-Z, released as the second single from T.I.'s sixth studio album, Paper Trail. It was slated to appear on Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3; however he later confirmed all songs with Auto-Tune were removed from the album. It was released on September 6, 2008....
". M.I.A. broke her hiatus in October 2008 by performing several songs including "Swagga Like Us" with T.I. and "Paper Planes" with her new label
N.E.E.T. (label)
N.E.E.T. Recordings is a record label founded by British-Sri Lankan Tamil recording artist M.I.A., with Interscope Records in 2008. N.E.E.T. is an acronym for "Not in Education, Employment or Training"....
signee Rye Rye and N.E.R.D. at the Diesel XXX party at Pier 3 in Brooklyn, United States where it was revealed that M.I.A. was pregnant with her first child. Following her performance of "Paper Planes" at the 2009 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is a three-day annual music and arts festival, organized by Goldenvoice and held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Inland Empire's Coachella Valley...
, she dedicated the song to the photographer Shawn Mortensen who died the previous week.
She performed "Paper Planes" and "Swagga Like Us" live at the 51st Grammy Awards
51st Grammy Awards
The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA on February 8, 2009. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the biggest winners of the night, jointly winning five awards including Album of the Year and Record of the Year...
ceremony with the musicians West, T.I., Jay-Z and Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne
Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. , better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.'z, with B.G.. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included...
on her son's expected birth delivery date on February 8 2009. She appeared on the red carpet wearing a blue and teal patterned, multi-tiered mini-dress designed by Manish Arora
Manish Arora
Manish Arora is an Indian fashion designer based in New Delhi. In early 2011, he was appointed as creative director of the womenswear collection of the French fashion house Paco Rabanne...
, that "both embraced and accentuated her full-bodied shape" and on stage wearing a polka-dot dress ensemble designed by Henry Holland
Henry Holland
Henry Holland may refer to:* Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter , Lancastrian leader during the Wars of the Roses* Henry Holland , English writer on witchcraft...
. Reactions to her dresses at the ceremony were mixed. Verena von Pfetten of Yahoo described her performance dress as "show-stoppingly sheer" and included it on the list of "The Grammy's Most Memorable Outfits of All-Time." Tracey Lomrantz and Susan Cernek of Glamour
Glamour (magazine)
Glamour is a women's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. Founded in 1939 in the United States, it was originally called Glamour of Hollywood....
included the dresses in their Best Dressed lists, praising M.I.A. for sticking to her signature style and "having fun" with her maternity wear fashion. Jocelyn Vena of MTV was less enthusiastic, saying of her Arora dress "there's no excuse for wearing a blue-and-green printed dress that made her look like a globe
Globe
A globe is a three-dimensional scale model of Earth or other spheroid celestial body such as a planet, star, or moon...
." M.I.A. later tweeted a picture of her 5-month old son wearing a small version of the Holland dress. Modelled after a 1950's performance in the main showroom of Las Vegas' Sands Hotel, the five artists performed to a standing ovation at the ceremony. Shaheem Reid of MTV commented of her performance "M.I.A. is a G! Let's never question her standing in hip-hop." Mike Bruno, writing in Entertainment Weekly, demanded that the singer be given a greater solo at the ceremony in future. Rosie Swash of The Guardian described her performance at the ceremony as "barnstorming", and noted the different ways, following the performance, that Oscar producers suggested M.I.A. could perform "O...Saya" at the 81st Academy Awards
81st Academy Awards
The 81st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2008 and took place February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST...
ceremony a few days later. Korin Miller of Daily News New York stated the singer "nailed" her Grammy performance. Ben Thomson of The Guardian commented "by claiming the right to be on that stage, she's expanding the "us" of the sampled lyric to include all the hard-pressed quarriers of hip-hop's musical raw materials, and women, and people who aren't American – at a stroke. Not bad going for a few minutes' work on a night when you'd planned to have a baby anyway."
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...
. In a track-by-track review for Kala, Eric Grandy of The Stranger
The Stranger (newspaper)
The Stranger is an alternative weekly newspaper in Seattle, Washington, USA. It runs a blog known as Slog.-History:The Stranger was founded by Tim Keck, who had previously co-founded the satirical newspaper The Onion, and cartoonist James Sturm. Its first issue came out on September 23, 1991...
noted that the song contained more conceptual layers, musical information, and lyrical self-reference than seemingly possible in a three-and-a-half minute pop song, saying it was "the standout track" on an album full of contenders, Kala's "most exciting synthesis of the political and the pop" and its chorus, "a sly, funny acknowledgement of the economics behind M.I.A.'s status as an exoticized sex symbol." This was somewhat echoed by 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:...
who noted the track's humour and called the song "one of the many standouts" of the album. The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
's Emma Warren also marked the song as a highlight, calling it "a career high" and comparing it favorably to an internationalist indie record made by Gorrilaz. Similarly, Evan McGarvey of Stylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine was an online music and film magazine launched in 2002. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, a number of different podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog....
called the song "narcotic, gorgeous".
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 "the drug-slinging persona of “Paper Planes”" joined tracks such as "Bamboo Banga" in providing plenty of hustle on the album, however it was M.I.A.'s meditation on the "unfortunate influence of rap’s portrayal of ‘the game’ on those in the developing world" that "obviously means the most to her." Todd Martens of Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
described M.I.A. on the song as "a revolutionary leading a class war". Writing for NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
, Alex Miller commented that "Paper Planes" was Kalas "only real pop moment [...]" but that it "sabotages any FM potential by crafting its infectious chorus around four crystal clear gunshots". Describing the song as "soft, soaring", he added that the song's The Clash sample was the clearest indication of where M.I.A. sees herself, "as the inheritor of true rebel music in an era of corporate punks". Jon Pareles of Blender
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....
joked that "by M.I.A. standards [Paper Planes] is almost a ballad", naming it a highlight of Kala. Bill Lamb 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....
claimed it served as a reaffirmation of popular music, deeming it "one of the most bracing pop hits in recent history" and that the song's patchwork world beat style "expands the boundaries of current hit pop music". Joey Guerra of Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
described the song's impact alongside the rest of the album, saying "Even amid so much rocket-fueled noise, standout "Paper Planes" causes its own commotion." Citing her lyric where she declares "Catch me at the border I got visas in my name," he further added that "with music this vital, [America] should immediately extend an open-door policy to the globe-trotting MC's stunning international flow." 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...
compared the artist's vocals favorably to those of "Boyz", describing them as "icy and distant" in the verse, giving way to a "catchy, juvenile playground chant" that made both songs "earworms". McAlpine noted that the power of the song lay in the discordance between the melody of the singing in the verses and the backing, saying "there's something very calm and serene about the music, and the slight mismatch in tone with the melody slaps you around the ears, demanding your attention, and forcing you to listen to the words. And when you do, and realise it's a dead-eyed skit on ruthless business practices, it just multiplies the queasy power of the song". Ben Thomson of The Guardian praised the song's wider cultural significance, ranking the single's release number 50 in the newspaper's list of the 50 key events in the history of world and folk music, for having turned globalisation inside out.
Writing for Clash Magazine
Clash (magazine)
Clash is a popular music and fashion magazine based in the United Kingdom. Its magazine title is published 12 times a year. It has a circulation of around 40,000....
, Colm Larkin said that the album's penultimate track was a "downtempo masterpiece that’s like a torch song for the world’s disaffected and poor with its chorus line", adding that with the song, the singer-songwriter remained "one of the best things to happen to 21st century music." In his review of Kala, Mark Pytlik of Pitchforkmedia wrote that the song was "an island tinged nursery rhyme." Writing for GQ
GQ (magazine)
GQ is a monthly men's magazine focusing on fashion, style, and culture for men, through articles on food, movies, fitness, sex, music, travel, sports, technology, and books...
, Gary Shteyngart
Gary Shteyngart
Gary Shteyngart is an American writer born in Leningrad, USSR. Much of his work is satirical and relies on the invention of elaborately fictitious yet somehow familiar places and times.-Life:...
praised M.I.A.'s self-sampling ethos, noting her profound sense of "just how fucked-up and unglamorous it is to grow up at the bottom of both First World and Third World societies." In the line "No one on the corner had swagger like us / Hit me on the burner prepaid wireless" he writes that "it's the prepaid wireless that's genius: the tiny sociological detail of the immigrant buying prepaid minutes as opposed to the monthly plan, the daily calculations amounting to an extra fifty bucks a month sent back to Chiapas, Mexico, or Lomé, Togo, that rings true to those of us who came to the West from more dysfunctional parts of the world." Tom Breihan of the Village Voice praised the song as continuing the "confounding, ambiguous political subtexts" that M.I.A.'s music carried, burying its meaning under layers of implication and forcing thorny and ambiguous questions about violence and advocacy, calling "Paper Planes" "a light and airy and bewitchingly pretty song" that also rode on its sample and chorus. Karim Maksoud of This Is Fake DIY
This Is Fake DIY
This Is Fake DIY is a United Kingdom-based music webzine dedicated to alternative music. It is named after a song by the Scottish alternative rock group Bis....
called "Paper Planes" an "immediately listenable" track that "showcases all the coarse fatalism, superficiality and backstabbing acerbity of the modern urban life, both in veracious lyrics, the scratched aesthetic and the lethargic, sedated bassline and backing beat maintained throughout." He concluded that the song emanated M.I.A.'s life experience and background "relentlessly" and presented a "tuneful amalgam of influences and exotic dynamic, one of the most promising for a while."
Awards and accolades
"Paper Planes" and its remixes from the EP have received numerous accolades following its release. The song placed number 17 on the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2007Triple J Hottest 100, 2007
The 2007 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on Australia Day, 26 January 2008. It was the fifteenth countdown of the most popular songs of the year, as chosen by the listeners of Australian radio station Triple J....
in Australia, becoming available for download and radio airplay in the country upon the release of Kala that year. "Paper Planes" placed number six on the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
poll of the top 40 singles of 2007, and was ranked the top single on the same poll of 2008. The song ranked at number 3 on the "10 Best Singles of 2008" list by American magazine Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
and number one on the "The 20 Best Songs of 2008" list by American magazine Spin. "Paper Planes (featuring Bun B and Rich Boy Remix)" placed at number four on Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's Top 100 Tracks of 2007, while the publication placed the remix as the third-best song of the 2000s. Blender
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....
s Top 144 Songs of 2008 featured "Paper Planes" at number 2, with the "Paper Planes (DFA remix)" at number 63. Les Inrockuptibles
Les Inrockuptibles
Les Inrockuptibles is a French cultural magazine. Started as a monthly magazine in 1986, it became weekly in 1995. The name is a play on "Les Incorruptibles", the French title of the American television series The Untouchables...
positioned "Paper Planes" at number 2 on its End of Year Best of List. Heineken España
Heineken
Heineken is a Dutch beer which has been brewed by Heineken International since 1873. It is available in a 4.6% alcohol variety in countries such as Ireland. It is the flagship product of the Heineken company and is made of purified water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. In 1886 H...
named "Paper Planes" the Top song of 2007, and placed it number 2 on its list of The 50 Best International Songs of the 2000s. Slant Magazine and Rolling Stone Brasil named "Paper Planes" the best song of 2008.
The song was nominated in the category for Record of the Year at the 2009 Grammy Awards. "Swagga Like Us", co-written by M.I.A. was nominated in the category for Best Rap Song
Grammy Award for Best Rap Song
The Grammy Award for Best Rap Song was first awarded in 2004. It is a songwriting award given to all who wrote the lyrics and music of the song. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were presented, for works released in the previous year...
at the awards. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
put "Paper Planes" on its end-of-the-decade, "Best-Of" list, saying "Admit it: That gunfire-and-cash-registers hook was stuck in your head for weeks after seeing the Pineapple Express trailer (or, uh, Slum-dog Millionaire) in 2008." "Paper Planes" placed number five on 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...
s 2009 list of the 50 Best Songs of the Decade. Rolling Stone also placed "Paper Planes" at number 236 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" was the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone, issue number 963, published December 9, 2004, a year after the magazine published its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time"....
" in the 2010 updated list. The same year, VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
placed the song at number 89 on its list of the "100 Greatest Songs of the 00's." "Paper Planes" was ranked number 12 on Stylus Magazine
Stylus (magazine)
Stylus is a print magazine devoted to fine writing instruments . It is published on a bi-monthly calendar and includes reviews of new pens and accessories, as well as articles about vintage pens, collecting, inks and paper...
's list of "The Top 100 Singles of the 2000s." Slant ranked the song number 2 on its "Best of the Aughts: Singles," - The Top 100 Singles of the 2000's decade. "Paper Planes" was positioned number 4 on Rockdelux
Rockdelux
Rockdelux is a popular music magazine published monthly in Spain.Rockdelux was first published in November 1984, and since then has accumulated over 200 editions, celebrating its 200th in October 2002, when it released a list of the 200 greatest international albums of all time, according to the...
s list of the "15 Best Singles of the 2000s." The Guardian included "Paper Planes" in its 2009 list "1000 Songs Everyone Must Hear." NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
ranked the song number 8 on the publication's 2008 best of the year list. In October 2011, the magazine placed it at number 15 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".
Covers and use in media
The song has been covered, sampled and remixed by various artists as well as being used by a range of media. Canadian band Holy Fuck, an opening act on the People vs. Money Tour tour, created a remix of "Paper Planes" that leaked online on February 2008. Barbadian singer RihannaRihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty , better known as simply Rihanna, is a Barbadian recording artist. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a recording career under the guidance of record producer Evan Rogers...
has covered the song in live performances and "Paper Planes" has been performed by Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya
Esau Mwamwaya
Esau Mwamwaya is a singer from Lilongwe, Malawi. He is best known for his collaboration, The Very Best with London based DJ/production duo Radioclit. His music has been described as an Afro-Western mix of dance, hiphop, pop and the traditional music of Malawi.Esau Mwamwaya was born in Mzuzu,...
as his own rendition "Tengazako". American indie rock band Built to Spill
Built to Spill
Built to Spill is an American indie rock band based in Boise, Idaho. The band has released seven full-length albums. Their most recent album, There Is No Enemy, was released on October 6, 2009.-History:...
covered "Paper Planes" at their live performances in Italy and the English rapper Dizzee Rascal
Dizzee Rascal
Dylan Kwabena Mills , better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a Ghanaian British rapper, songwriter and record producer. His music is a blend of garage, hip hop, grime, ragga, pop and electronic music, with eclectic samples and more exotic styles...
has covered the song at his live performances. Detroit rapper Esham
Esham
Rashaam Attica Smith, better known by his stage name Esham , is an American rapper from Detroit, Michigan known for his hallucinogenic style of hip hop which he refers to as "acid rap", which fuses rock-based beats and lyrics involving subjects such as death, drug use, evil, paranoia and...
used "Paper Planes" as the basis for his song "Keys to the City". The song has been sampled in live performances by the musician Lowkey
Lowkey
Kareem Dennis is a musician and political activist of English and Iraqi descent, better known by his stage name Lowkey. He first became known through a series of mixtapes he released before he was 18, before taking a hiatus from the music business...
who raps "All MPs wanna do is … take your money". "Paper Planes has been covered live by London band The Clientele
The Clientele
The Clientele are a London-based British band with Alasdair MacLean on vocals and guitar, Mark Keen on drums, James Hornsey on bass and Mel Draisey on violin, keyboards, backing vocals and percussion....
.
The song's line "No one on the corner has swagger like us" was sampled by West in the song "Swagga Like Us", a song by American rappers T.I. and Jay-Z, West and Lil Wayne. In September 2008 American rapper 50 Cent
50 Cent
Curtis James Jackson III , better known by his stage name 50 Cent, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, investor, record producer, and actor. He rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin and The Massacre . Get Rich or Die Tryin has been certified eight times platinum by...
; State Property
State Property (Group)
State Property is a rap group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA led by rapper Beanie Sigel with Philly rappers Freeway, Peedi Peedi, Oschino, and Omillio Sparks, and the Young Gunz and female R&B singer Casha...
members Young Chris
Young Gunz
The Young Gunz is an American rap duo from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania composed of Young Chris and Neef Buck . The group is part of Beanie Sigel's State Property collective and was signed to Roc-A-Fella Records...
and Freeway
Freeway (rapper)
Leslie Edward Pridgen , better known by his stage name Freeway, is an American rapper. Best known for his tenure on Roc-A-Fella Records and his affiliation with Jay-Z and Beanie Sigel, he is recognized by his high-pitched delivery and for the long beard he keeps due to his Muslim faith...
, as well as Jim Jones
Jim Jones (rapper)
Joseph Guillermo Jones II , better known by his stage name Jim Jones, is an American rapper and original member of The Diplomats, also known as Dipset. He is Co-CEO of Diplomat Records...
released their own remixes of the song. Asked about her feelings regarding how, despite being over a year old, the track was still appearing on high profile mixtapes, she told MTV "I think it's cool when you bring all these rappers and artists like the Clash together... it's cool that they support it. It's so many people that be like, 'I don't know what you're talking about.' It's kind of like 'This is the sh--, and we think it's hot" before adding that having made a track that was organic, creative and not made with marketing be liked and find chart success was satisfying and interesting for the musician, even if charts didn't compute with her.
"Paper Planes" soundtracked the theatrical trailer for the comedy film Pineapple Express starring Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, and voice artist. Rogen began his career doing stand-up comedy during his teen years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While still living in his native Vancouver, he landed a small part in Freaks and...
and James Franco
James Franco
James Edward Franco is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author, painter, performance artist and instructor at New York University. He left college in order to pursue acting and started off his career by making guest appearances on television series in the 1990s...
. A "red-band" trailer for the film Pineapple Express, featuring the song leaked
Internet leak
An Internet leak occurs when a party's confidential information is released to the public on the Internet. Various types of information and data can be, and have been, "leaked" to the Internet, the most common being personal information, computer software and source code, and artistic works such...
in February 2008, before Sony Pictures had the video removed from YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
within a few days of its posting. The film's makers had been keen on including the song in the film's main trailer and approached M.I.A.'s U.S. label 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:...
for permission. She added "Interscope asked me and I was, like, well, since it’s just the trailer, that’s cool. I didn’t really think twice about it" stating she would have thought more carefully about permitting the song's use if it was in the main film, "scrutinizing what scene they were using it in and stuff like that". Patrick Goldstein's Summer Movie Posse of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
described its incorporation at the time as "the most impressive use of M.I.A.'s 'Paper Planes' ever". "Paper Planes" and the DFA Records remix both appear in Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle
Daniel "Danny" Boyle is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Trainspotting. For Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle won numerous awards in 2008, including the Academy Award for Best Director...
's drama Slumdog Millionaire; the remix also appears in the film Hancock
Hancock (film)
Hancock is a 2008 American action-comedy superhero film directed by Peter Berg and starring Will Smith, Jason Bateman, and Charlize Theron. It tells the story of a vigilante superhero, John Hancock from Los Angeles whose reckless actions routinely cost the city millions of dollars...
. Boyle, who took the song with him to India and listened to it during the shoot, described it as a crucial one and "a key song" he had in mind for his film from the onset, before its use in the trailer of Pineapple Express, telling Rodrigo Perez of MTV "[...]originally it was featured very early on in the film, but then we moved it to the halfway mark, and then the song was used in ‘Pineapple Express’ [...] What can you do?" "Paper Planes" was used in the trailer for Michael Moore
Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...
's documentary Capitalism: A Love Story.
Rap rock supergroup Street Sweeper Social Club
Street Sweeper Social Club
Street Sweeper Social Club is an American Rap Rock supergroup, formed in Los Angeles, California in 2006. The band primarily consists of guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and vocalist/emcee Boots Riley of The Coup. The band has been testing songs out during Tom Morello's...
perform a live cover of "Paper Planes" at their shows and a studio version appears on their 2010 EP The Ghetto Blaster EP
The Ghetto Blaster EP
The Ghetto Blaster EP is the first EP from the rap rock supergroup Street Sweeper Social Club, released on August 10, 2010. It features covers of "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. and "Mama Said Knock You Out" by LL Cool J as well a remix of the band's second single "Promenade." They also cover The Coup...
. "Paper Planes" is parodied by Funny or Die
Funny or Die
Funny or Die is a comedy video website founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's production company, Gary Sanchez Productions with original and user-generated content. Funny or Die contains exclusive material from a number of famous contributors and also has its own Funny or Die Team, which creates...
with a music video released on July 27, 2010. The Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...
used "Paper Planes" as their victory song during their three-week effort to win the National League West
National League West
The National League Western Division, or NL West, is one of the three divisions of Major League Baseball's National League. It was created in 1969 when the previously undivided National League expanded its membership to twelve teams, positioning half of them in an Eastern division and the other...
title in the 2008 season
2008 Major League Baseball season
The 2008 Major League Baseball season began on March 25, 2008 in Tokyo, Japan with the 2007 World Series champion Boston Red Sox defeating the Oakland Athletics at the Tokyo Dome 6–5 in the first game of a two-game series, and ended on September 30 with the host Chicago White Sox defeating the...
in the United States. " Paper Planes" is covered by the pop punk band Freshman 15
Freshman 15 (band)
Freshman 15 is an American pop punk band from Gainesville, Georgia. The band was formed in 2002 but at that time they were named Xzamen. They changed to the name "Freshman 15" in 2007. The band formed as Xzamen was composed of Davey Fortner , Jeremy Smith , B.J. Formella , and Breck Blanchard...
, and by the band This Century for the compilation album Punk Goes Pop 3
Punk Goes Pop 3
Punk Goes Pop 3 is the tenth compilation album released from the Punk Goes... series created by Fearless Records to feature covers by various artists of pop songs, and is the tenth album in the series overall...
.
Chart performance
"Paper Planes" has achieved commercial success by reaching the top ten in the Canada and the United States, appearing in the top ten of six Billboard U.S. charts, the top 20 in Denmark, Belgium, Israel and the United Kingdom and charting in many other countries in Europe, South America and Oceania. The song debuted at number 72 on the Hot Canadian Digital Sales chart and at number 89 on the Canadian Hot 100Canadian Hot 100
The Canadian Hot 100 is a music singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks songs in Canada. The chart debuted in the Billboard issue dated June 16, 2007 and was made available for the first time via their online services on June 7, 2007...
in late February 2008 due to strong digital downloads. By late March 2008, the song reached number 3 on the US Hot Singles Sales chart and topped the US 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...
chart, becoming M.I.A.'s first single to top the chart after her debut "Galang
Galang
"Galang" is the first single from M.I.A.'s album Arular. It is written by Maya Arulpragasam , Justine Frischmann, Ross Orton and Steve Mackey. The word 'galang' comes from the Jamaican patois for 'go on'. The first time Arulpragasam released "Galang", in 2003, it was released on an indie label,...
" reached number 11 and "Boyz" peaked at number 3. After its appearance in the trailer for the film Pineapple Express, the song entered the 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...
chart at number 99, and the Bubbling Under Hot 100 at number 14 in the United States. By early May 2008, the song had climbed to number 4 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, and number 80 on the U.S. Billboard Pop 100, overtaking the peak of 99 achieved on the chart by M.I.A.'s previous single "Boyz". "Paper Planes" debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Songs
Hot Digital Songs
The Hot Digital Songs chart ranks the best-selling digital singles in the United States, according to Billboard.Beginning in February 2005, digital sales have been incorporated into many of Billboards music single charts. It was decided to do so mainly because of the dramatic rise in popularity of...
at the same time at number 57, climbing to number 71 on the Pop 100 chart. The song debuted on the Chilean Top 100 Singles Chart at number 95 in mid May 2008 before climbing to number 91 the next week.
In Europe, the song debuted on the Belgian Singles Chart peaking at 18 in June 2008. The song rebounded on the US charts following use in the Pineapple Express trailer the next month, entering the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart at position 55, with sales of 42,000 downloads. In subsequent weeks, it continued to climb the chart, with download sales totaling 888,000 the following month. In it's ninth week on the chart, "Paper Planes" rose from number five to number four on the Hot 100 where it peaked. It received heavy airplay on Mainstream
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, Pop, Alternative
Modern Rock Tracks
Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs...
, and some Urban Contemporary formatted stations. As of August 2009, the song sold over three million units in the United States. "Paper Planes" has been certified triple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
in the U.S. and the Canadian Recording Industry Association
Canadian Recording Industry Association
Music Canada is a Toronto-based, non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, artists, manufacture, production, promotion and distribution of music in Canada...
in Canada, becoming the 29th most downloaded song in the digital era in the United States,as of November 2011, it has sold 3,68 million digital copies there, and has been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand
Recording Industry Association of New Zealand
The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand...
in New Zealand. The song climbed to number 33 on the Chilean Singles Chart in July 2008. "Paper Planes" debuted on the México Top 100 Singles Chart at number 85, the Isreal Singles Chart at number 14 and the Brazil Hot 100 at number 32. On 7 September 2008, "Paper Planes" entered the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
at number 69 on downloads alone and peaked at number 19. Following its appearance in the film Slumdog Millionaire, the song re-entered the UK Singles Chart on 15 February 2009 at number 33. The song spent twenty seven weeks on the chart, and reappeared on the singles chart in January 2010 at number 61, a position it retained for one week.
"Paper Planes" is to date 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...
best selling single. Eric R. Danton of the Hartford Courant noted that the song's success "speaks to the idea that the best pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
rarely originates with the major label corporate music machine that exists to sell pop music" but rose from underground artists with something to say, offering significant lessons to the music industry in an era of declining music sales and general financial turmoil.
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 song was shot in December 2007 in one day in Bedford-Stuyvesant
Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
Bedford-Stuyvesant is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Formed in 1930, the neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 3, Brooklyn Community Board 8 and Brooklyn Community Board 16. The neighborhood is patrolled by the NYPD's 79th and 81st...
, 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...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. It was directed by Bernard Gourley. The video is M.I.A.'s first filmed in the United States. Initially planed to be shot in a factory on the border of Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, the filming location was changed to accommodate M.I.A.'s time constraints due to touring commitments in the United States. The video was filmed during one day in the city, which she had free on the American leg of her KALA Tour after 4 months of concerts. It was made available on 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....
's website on 15 December and premiered on M.I.A.'s YouTube account on 16 December, 2007. The video debuted on TRL
Total Request Live
Total Request Live is a television series on MTV that featured popular music videos. TRL was MTV's prime outlet for music videos as the network continues to concentrate on reality-based programming. In addition to music videos, TRL featured daily guests...
on 17 December 2007.
In the video, several paper planes fly over New York City. M.I.A. appears as an immigrant who sells sandwiches from a van to several other New Yorkers. At the sound of the gunshots, quick shots of street signs, people, and restaurant signs appear. She can be seen wearing a Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
Ride the Lightning
Ride the Lightning
Ride the Lightning is the second studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released on July 27, 1984 through the independent record label Megaforce Records. The album was certified gold by the RIAA on November 5, 1987 and was most recently certified 5x platinum on June 9, 2003...
shirt in several parts of the music video. Nigerian rapper Afrikan Boy
Afrikan Boy
Olushola Ajose, better known by his stage name Afrikan Boy is a grime MC from Woolwich, London, England, originally from Nigeria. He made a guest appearance on the track "Hussel" from the M.I.A. album Kala, and is one of the initial artists M.I.A. wanted signed to her label in 2007, then titled...
joins M.I.A. in serving street food on New York City's streets in exchange for buyer's chains, watches, and cash—among those stopping by the cart are Mike D and Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
, where Mike D.'s Rolex is exchanged for food. M.I.A. uploaded the video onto her YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
account in February 2008.
"Paper Planes" peaked at number 1 on MuchOnDemand
MuchOnDemand
MuchOnDemand was an hour-long per broadcast viewer interactive television program aired on MuchMusic, Monday through Friday at 5pm ET. It was broadcast live from the Much broadcasting studio on 299 Queen Street West in Toronto. The Best of MuchOnDemand, aired Sundays at 10am ET, highlighting the...
s Daily Ten and number 1 on TRL
Total Request Live
Total Request Live is a television series on MTV that featured popular music videos. TRL was MTV's prime outlet for music videos as the network continues to concentrate on reality-based programming. In addition to music videos, TRL featured daily guests...
in January 2008, two weeks after its release. It appeared at Number 56 on BET
Black Entertainment Television
Black Entertainment Television is an American, Viacom-owned cable network based in Washington, D.C.. Currently viewed in more than 90 million homes worldwide, it is the most prominent television network targeting young Black-American audiences. The network was launched on January 25, 1980, by its...
's Notarized: Top 100 Videos of 2008 countdown.
Controversy
A writer for AFPAgence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...
based in Colombo
Colombo
Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...
stated that M.I.A.'s music was not played on Sri Lankan radio or television - which, like music retailers and night clubs there, chose not to stock or play her records due to political pressure from the Sri Lankan government as the Sinhala-Tamil conflict
Sri Lankan civil war
The Sri Lankan Civil War was a conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. Beginning on July 23, 1983, there was an on-and-off insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil...
in Sri Lanka dragged on. Instead, fans of the artist on the island relied on certain social media websites on the internet to access her work. The success of "Paper Planes" paralleling M.I.A.'s condemnation of government and army atrocities as amounting to "systematic genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
" and ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
resulted in death threats being made against her. Touré
Touré
Touré is an American novelist, essayist, music journalist, cultural critic, and television personality based in New York City. He is the host of Fuse's Hiphop Shop and On The Record...
, writing in The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast is an American news reporting and opinion website founded and published by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker as well as the short-lived Talk Magazine. The Daily Beast was launched on October 6, 2008, and is owned by IAC...
noted that this was in keeping with the governments' censorship and regulation of news flowing out of the island, which, along with government restrictions to the northeastern theatre of the war in late 2008 meant "the world had heard little" of the atrocities inflicted by the state against Tamils. An American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Sinhalese rapper named DeLon
DeLon (rapper)
Dilan Jayasingha better known as his stage name, DeLon, is an aspiring American hip hop artist and record producer.DeLon is the first Sri Lankan artist to place on the U.S...
circulated a viral
Viral video
A viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email...
YouTube video in which he rapped over "Paper Planes" and accused M.I.A. of "supporting terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
" by using images of the tiger and discussing violence in her lyrics, showing graphic images of violence purportedly linked to the LTTE rebel group. After some media ran a story on this, M.I.A responded that her music is the voice of a civilian refugee and that she was not willing to discuss anything with someone looking for self-promotion. Colombo based writer Thomas Fuller of the New York Times wrote an article about M.I.A.'s statements against the Vanni onslaught, stating that her music's ambiguity and her criticism of the government's conduct had "not endeared her to the island's Sinhalese majority". Zach Baron of the Village Voice accused the newspaper of using "chintzy, ad-hominem allegations" on M.I.A.'s work in the piece, imploring the paper to use its "vaunted" access instead to inquire as to why the government would not let aid through to the Vanni. M.I.A. said of the situation in Sri Lanka in 2010 "Every single Tamil person who's alive today, who's seen how the world does nothing, has to find a way to exist that isn't harboring bitterness and hate and revenge." GQ writer Gary Shteyngart notes that "to her Sinhalese detractors, her music is precisely that form of revenge."
The "Paper Planes" music video was censored by MTV
Censorship on MTV
Censorship on MTV has been the subject of debate for years. MTV, the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., has come under criticism for being too politically correct and sensitive, censoring too much of their programming...
in December 2007, who had also banned the video for M.I.A.'s single "Sunshowers
Sunshowers
"Sunshowers" is a song by British musician M.I.A. from her critically acclaimed debut album Arular . It was written and produced by Maya Arulpragasam, Ross Orton, Steve Mackey, August Darnell and Stony Jr. Browder with additional production by Nesreen Shah and Anthony Whiting. The song includes a...
". In this version, M.I.A.'s vocals were doubled, the gun sounds replaced with popping sounds, and the word "weed" replaced with the word "seed". The producers of Pineapple Express asked for the word to be similarly changed before use, a request M.I.A. found "ridiculous, cause the whole movie's about weed
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
." On December 16, 2007, following some fan disapproval of the leaked MTV version, M.I.A. stated in a MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
entry that MTV's decision to change the sound disappointed and angered her, adding that MTV had "sabotaged" a music video made more safe and mainstream than her regular videos. The song was similarly censored during her live performance on the Late Show with David Letterman to her visible surprise, an action she had not agreed to. The chorus effects during the sound check of her Late Show performance were different from what was played live during the taping. At her concert at the Austin City Limits
Austin City Limits
Austin City Limits is an American public television music program recorded live in Austin, Texas by Public Broadcasting Service Public television member station KLRU, and broadcast on many PBS stations around the United States...
a few days after the show, she spoke more of the incident, thanking David Letterman
David Letterman
David Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC...
onstage "for letting her into the American mainstream." A writer for New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine felt the issue of MTV censoring "Paper Planes" was a non-controversy as the edited clip had been removed from MTV following fan-pressure and replaced, noting "they've been [censoring gun sounds and imagery] since 1997, according to Wikipedia. What does surprise us is that MTV ever considered showing the video at all. We had no idea they still aired music videos, much less ones by talented artists like M.I.A. If anything, it likely airs at odd hours when nobody's watching." Tom Breihan of The Village Voice also noted this to be part of a general trend by networks like MTV and BET and radio towards rap songs such as those by 50 cent where any references to drugs, sex and violence were removed and replaced, concluding that this was a double standard approach to rap artists' work compared to songs by Green Day
Green Day
Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool...
and My Chemical Romance
My Chemical Romance
My Chemical Romance is an American alternative rock band from New Jersey, formed in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero, and bassist Mikey Way and have a diverse sound incorporating elements of punk, emo, glam metal, and progressive rock...
. Commenting that "Paper Planes" is a "song that deserves to start a few arguments, and it should go out into the wider world with its argument-starting potential left intact," Breihan noted that although the uncensored version would not inspire rioting
Riot
A riot is a form of civil disorder characterized often by what is thought of as disorganized groups lashing out in a sudden and intense rash of violence against authority, property or people. While individuals may attempt to lead or control a riot, riots are thought to be typically chaotic and...
in the streets, more listeners opted to download music as mainstream "cultural outlets in which [...] music makes itself heard are increasingly afraid of offending anyone, ever, for any reason".
Track listings and formats
Digital 7digital EP(Released 11 February 2008)
- "Paper Planes"
- "Paper Planes" (DFA Remix)
- "Paper Planes" (Afrikan Boy & Rye Rye Remix)
- "Paper Planes" (Diplo Street Remix feat. Bun B & Rich Boy)
- "Paper Planes" (Scottie B Remix)
- "Bamboo Banga" (DJ Eli Remix)
U.S. CD / Digital U.S. iTunes EP
(Released 12 February 2008)
- "Paper Planes" (featuring Afrikan Boy & Rye Rye) (Blaqstarr remix)
- "Paper Planes" (remix for the children by Ad-Rock)
- "Paper Planes" (featuring Bun B & Rich Boy) (Diplo Street Remix)
- "Paper Planes" (DFA Remix)
- "Paper Planes" (Scottie B Remix)
XL 12" Vinyl EP
(Released 24 March 2008)
- "Paper Planes"
- "Paper Planes" (DFA Remix)
- "Paper Planes" (Afrikan Boy & Rye Rye Remix)
- "Paper Planes" (Diplo Street Remix feat. Bun B & Rich Boy)
- "Paper Planes" (Scottie B Remix)
- "Bamboo Banga" (DJ Eli Remix)
UK CD
- "Paper Planes"
- "Paper Planes" (Diplo Street Remix feat. Bun B & Rich Boy)
UK 7-inch
- "Paper Planes"
- "Paper Planes" (DFA Remix)
Europe iTunes EP
- "Paper Planes"
- "Paper Planes" (DFA Remix)
- "Paper Planes" (Diplo Street Remix) (feat. Bun B & Rich Boy)
Personnel
- SongwritingSongwriterA songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
– Mathangi Maya "M.I.A." 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...
, Topper HeadonTopper HeadonHeadon was extensively interviewed for the Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten documentary film about the late Clash frontman. He related his experiences during this period, how he became addicted to heroin and how there were problems before his dismissal...
, Mick JonesMick Jones (The Clash)Michael Geoffrey "Mick" Jones is the former lead guitarist, secondary vocalist and co-founder for the British punk rock band The Clash until his dismissal in 1983. He went on to form the band Big Audio Dynamite with Don Letts before line-up changes led to the formation of Big Audio Dynamite II and...
, Wesley "Diplo" PentzDiploThomas Wesley Pentz Thomas Wesley Pentz Thomas Wesley Pentz (born , better known by his stage name Diplo, is a Philadelphia-based American DJ, producer, and songwriter. Together with DJ Low Budget, he runs Hollertronix, a club and music collective. He also founded and manages record company Mad...
, Paul SimononPaul SimononPaul Gustave Simonon is an English musician and artist best known as the bass guitarist for punk rock band The Clash. Recent work includes his involvement in the album The Good, the Bad & the Queen with Damon Albarn, Simon Tong and Tony Allen, released in January 2007...
, Joe StrummerJoe StrummerJohn Graham Mellor , best remembered by his stage name Joe Strummer, was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist of the British punk rock band The Clash. His musical experience included his membership in The 101ers, Latino Rockabilly War, The Mescaleros and The Pogues, in... - ProductionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, additional production - Diplo, SwitchSwitch (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... - MixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
– Switch
Source:
Weekly charts
| Chart (2008) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US 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... (Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... ) |
1 |
End of year charts
| Chart | Position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart (2008) | 121 |
| UK Singles Chart (2009) | 146 |
| US Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 2008 Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 2008 This is a list of Billboard magazine's Top Hot 100 songs of 2008.... |
35 |
Certifications
| Country | Certification |
|---|---|
| Canada | 3x Platinum |
| United States | 3x Platinum |
| New Zealand | Gold |