M.I.A. vs. Lynn Hirschberg Row Gets a Soundtrack

Not only has M.I.A. gotten in her second quarrel with The New York Times of the year, but she’s dropped her second original anti-Times song, as well. Back in January, Ms. Arulpragasam made an audacious, though fair, attack on the Times‘ travel section after they followed a feature news story about executions in Sri Lanka by giving her native country the top spot in a “31 Places to Go in 2010” listicle. While that spat was followed by a so-called protest song (also our first listen to her forthcoming album), the latest round between the esteemed newspaper and the singer/rapper now has a soundtrack too—though it’s presumably not a song from / \ / \ / \ Y / \ this time.

We won’t bother rehashing controversial portions of Lynn Hirschberg’s M.I.A. profile piece (others have thoroughly covered that already) or Maya’s swift reaction, but given that the debacle actually involves new music, I’d be remiss in not pointing to the current state of the debate: In a blog titled “War Crimes and French Fries,” M.I.A. posted two unedited sound clips from her interview with Hirschberg at LA’s posh Beverly Wilshire Hotel, links to NY Times pieces on Sri Lanka, and a new song, “Haters,” inspired by last week’s events.

Stream “Haters” below, and experience the latest multimedia round of what some have amusingly dubbed “Trufflegate” here.