Rest assured: No song on this album will ever make its way into the public consciousness. Its first single, “Born Free,” pretends to be a sample of or homage to Suicide’s “Ghost Rider,” but it is almost indistinguishable from the original, except M.I.A.’s pseudo-political karaoke dropped on top. I wanted to...

Baltimore's native strain of rap, a fusion of house and dancehall conventions known as Baltimore club, is one of the most unique in the country, along with D.C. go-go a distinct alternative to the southern club music that's infiltrated much many of the country's bigger, less-isolated rap scenes. DJ Blaqstarr is the new face of Baltimore club, but its great white hope could be his protege, a teenag...

There's nothing quite so deliciously satisfying to one's ironic sensibility than witnessing the "majority" cheer for the videotaped speechifying of Kouichi Touyama, a street musician who ran for governor of Tokyo in 2007.

With her bold politics and penchant for confrontational interviews, British electronic/dancehall queen M.I.A. has a divisive personality. But when it comes to her music, critics aren’t divided at all. Music publications—print and online, big and small—heralded her 2007 release, Kala, as one of the year’s best albums . . .

The hipster remix master of choice these days, Philadelphia-based Diplo favors the party-anthem over the increasingly ethereal approach employed by so many DJs. After his 2004 solo debut Florida, he began to focus on altering the works of others, like Bloc Party and Kanye West . . .