You’ve probably heard that Madonna behaved herself at the Super Bowl halftime show. No Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunctions. No f-bombs. But one of the Material Girl’s backup artists, MIA, threw out the middle finger. Edgy. Street. Silly.

I should offer this disclaimer, I like MIA’s music. She is perky and kind of faux-tough. Catchy. Her background is interesting:

Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam; born 18 July 1975), better known by her stage name M.I.A. (both a play on her name and abbreviation for Missing in Action), is a British rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, painter and director of Sri Lankan Tamil descent.

Her compositions combine elements of electronica, hip hop, alternative, dance, and world music. . .

Critics are either confused about her work or heralded her music with the usual third world superiority:

Critic Simon Reynolds, writing in The Village Voice in 2005 saw this as a lack of authenticity and felt M.I.A. was “a veritable vortex of discourse, around most likely irresolvable questions concerning authenticity, postcolonialism, and dilettantism”.

Critic Robert Christgau described Reynolds’ argument as “cheap tack” in another article written in the publication, stating M.I.A’s experiences connected her to world poverty in a way “few Western whites can grasp”.

He questioned why M.I.A.’s 2001 Alternative Turner Prize nominated images of pastel-washed tigers, soldiers, guns, armored vehicles, and fleeing civilians that bedeck M.I.A.’s albums and videos were now assumed or analyzed as being incendiary propaganda, suggesting that unlike art buyers, rock and roll fans were “assumed to be stupid.”

She has opinions, that’sa fer sure. Here’s hers on video games and the military:

M.I.A. performing on the People vs. Money Tour

The same year, M.I.A. voiced her fears of the influence of video game violence on her son and his generation, saying, “I don’t know which is worse.

The fact that I saw it in my life has maybe given me lots of issues, but there’s a whole generation of American kids seeing violence on their computer screens and then getting shipped off to Afghanistan.

They feel like they know the violence when they don’t. Not having a proper understanding of violence, especially what it’s like on the receiving end of it, just makes you interpret it wrong and makes inflicting violence easier.”

Or some conspiracies:

She told Nylon magazine that social networking site Facebook and Google’s development “by the CIA” was harmful to internet freedom. Some criticized the claim as lacking detail.

She would probably pick an underdog for a boyfriend, right? Nope. Her boyfriend (or husband?) is Ben Bronfman, son of the billionaire Edgar Bronfman:

Benjamin Bronfman attended The Collegiate School in New York City, graduating in 2000. He enrolled inEmerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, where he studied Politics and Law before leaving school frustrated by the election of 2000 and the outcome of Bush v. Gore.

Bronfman became interested in progressive environmental technologies & geo-engineering in 2007. Teaming with Columbia University economist, Graciela Chichilinsky, he embarked on a project to reduce the atmospheric concentration of Carbon Dioxide.

In 2007, he became associate managing director of Global Thermostat, Chichilinsky and fellow Columbia Professor, Peter Eisenberg’s technology firm focused on developing a technology for direct air-capture of carbon dioxide.

I’ve tried a lot of direct air-capture of CO2. My mechanism? My geranium.

I simply love the fact that MIA’s tour was called People vs. Money. She had a kid with Ben Bronfman, heir to billions (plural.) If she ain’t money, I don’t know who is.

Just sing, MIA. Enough with the middle-fingahs or the politics. . .