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Bad Girls (M.I.A. song)

"Bad Girls" is a song by British recording artist M.I.A. for her fourth studio album, Matangi (2013[4]). The song is written by Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam, Marcella Araica and Floyd Nathaniel "Danja" Hills, and produced by Danja. The song, Arulpragasam's first release following her departure from the UK's XL Recordings in 2011, was self-released worldwide under exclusive license to Interscope Records in the US on 31 January 2012. A shorter version of the song appeared on Vicki Leekx, a mixtape released for free online on 31 December 2010. "Bad Girls" was released as a digital download a day after its world premiere on radio and online.

"Bad Girls"

31 January 2012

Hit Factory Criteria (Miami), Circle House (Miami)

3:47

  • Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam
  • Nate "Danja" Hills
  • Marcella Araica

The track is a midtempo hip-hop song with Middle Eastern influences and exhibiting elements of worldbeat, dancehall and syncopated drums in its instrumentation. Its lyrics revolve around sexual prowess and female empowerment, while its chorus features the refrain "Live fast die young, bad girls do it well" sung in a haughty rap-sung delivery. The song received positive reviews from contemporary critics, who lauded it as a highlight from the mixtape and commended its hook and lyrics on its final version as containing hallmarks of her previous songs including "Paper Planes" (2007) and "XXXO" (2010). In 2019, Pitchfork ranked "Bad Girls" as the 27th best song of the 2010s decade.


An accompanying music video for the song was shot in Ouarzazate, Morocco in solidarity with the women to drive movement, premiering on 3 February 2012. Directed by Romain Gavras, the video garnered universal acclaim and accolades. The song charted in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Korea, Switzerland, the UK and the US, solely on downloads, and was distributed in physical format on 12 March 2012.

Background and release[edit]

"Bad Girls" first appeared on M.I.A.'s self-released mixtape Vicki Leekx (2010), shortly following the release of her third studio album Maya earlier that year.[5] Recording sessions for the song transpired in Miami, Florida; M.I.A worked with Danja, a producer who previously collaborated with recording artists such as Madonna and Nelly Furtado.[6] The artwork for "Bad Girls" was released on 25 January 2012,[6] while photos taken by Bernard Coulter of M.I.A. with cowriters Danja and Marcella, who were listening to the record's main mix in a Jeep, were revealed on the rapper's official website and her Twitter page.[7]


Preceding its release, "Bad Girls" was premiered on audio sharing site SoundCloud on 30 January 2012; the song premiered live on worldwide radio the same day on BBC Radio 1. The single was chosen as Zane Lowe's "Hottest Record in the World" alongside Jack White's "Love Interruption" (2012).[8] Lowe opined that despite her typically "energetic" tracks, the rapper was "finding a new voice on [her] forthcoming album", which perhaps explained "the lack of showing off displayed" on the record.[8] "Bad Girls" became readily available for digital download on the iTunes and Amazon on the following day. The song reached the A-List on BBC Radio 6 rotation,[9] and reached the top of the playlist on Italian radio station Radio DeeJay for the week dated 10 March.[10] The single was released in physical format in the United Kingdom on 12 March 2012.[11]

Remixes[edit]

"Bad Girls" contains three remixes: the N.A.R.S Remix featuring rappers Missy Elliott and Azealia Banks; the Switch Remix, which still features Missy Elliott but also features Rye Rye; and the Leo Justi remix.


American rapper Jay-Z utilises M.I.A.'s flow from "Bad Girls" for the bridge to his song "Tom Ford".

Composition[edit]

"Bad Girls" is a midtempo hip hop song with elements of Middle Eastern and Indian hooks with influences of dancehall and worldbeat music.[12][13] The song's structure is focused on careening beats, synths inspired by Eastern sounds and syncopated drums and an SOS signal rhythm.[14][15] Nick Levine of NME commented that the song's chorus was one of those "boffo pop choruses" that M.I.A. could toss off when she wanted to, while commending the chorus as being in the same vein as that of "XXXO", a track from M.I.A.'s third studio album Maya (2010).[12] Rolling Stone thought that "Bad Girls" was the catchiest song the singer had released since "Paper Planes" from Kala (2007).[16] The song's instrumentation consists of background bleeps and blorps mixed down, and the percussion turned up from, but still recalling, the original mixtape version. Because of these, the song exhibits what David Marchese of Spin describes as a "vaguely sinister" rhythm slither.[17]


Lyrically, the song explores themes of sexual empowerment. M.I.A. professes "Live fast, die young, bad girls do it well" and "My chain hits my chest when I'm banging on the radio" in a nonchalant mannered chant.[18] Marchese describes the lyric as "irresistibly sassy", a view shared by Robert Copsey of Digital Spy, who wrote that it was a line M.I.A. pulled off spectacularly.[17][18] M.I.A. adopts a "nicely haughty" rapping-singing vocalization that bears resemblance to her previous work.[17] The first verse consists of M.I.A. declaring in many references to cars "My chain hits my chest when I’m banging on the dashboard / My chain hits my chest when I’m banging on the radio / Yeah back it, back it, yeah pull up to the bumper game / With a signal, cover me, cause I’m changing lanes / Had a handle on it, my life, but I broke it / When I get to where I’m going, gonna have you saying it."[19] She continues with the line "I had a handle on it / My life, but I broke it" in an emotionally key delivery, a view shared by Will Hermes of Rolling Stone who notes that in an anthem to recklessly empowered car sex, is "surprisingly" melancholy.[20]

Critical response[edit]

"Bad Girls" was lauded by music critics. Billboard columnist Jason Lipshutz complimented the song's "hypnotic" hook;[21] synonymous sentiments were echoed by Marchese, who ascertained the hook of "Bad Girls" as an "irresistibly sassy lyric".[17] Jeff Klingman of L Magazine felt that "Bad Girls" was relatively subtle compared to her previous work.[22] Although he enjoyed the "bright and clean" rhythms of the track, Klingman reprimanded its lyrical content. "There's no eye-rolling political agit-prop," he remarked, "but there's nothing taking up its void either. It's about being a bad girl, and driving a car. It acts like 'get down' rhymes with 'you can hang'. It's just sort of filling space."[22] Robert Copsey of Digital Spy wrote that the song served as a "timely reminder" that the musician could make a chart-friendly hit when and if she so chooses. He appreciated its hook as a line "loaded with the kind of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll fluff that most of today's chart hoggers are spouting" and probably the "last thing we expected to hear from the politically-minded Sri Lankan" adding that it was also a line that few could pull off so spectacularly.[23] Bill Lamb of About.com rated the song three and a half stars (out of five), praising its chorus and composition and writing that "this may be just be the kind of curveball that the artist M.I.A. might want to throw at the moment."[13] Molly Lambert of Pitchfork Media commented that "Bad Girls" shows that the "pop instincts and talents" of M.I.A. "remain as sharp as ever."[15] Priya Elan of the NME praised the song, writing "With his help this is MIA as you've never heard her before, taking her pan-global pop smarts and injecting them with a huge growth hormone... Damn straight, MIA, damn straight."[24]


In his 3.5 out of five star review, Will Hermes of Rolling Stone concluded: "This repolished highlight from M.I.A.'s Vicki Leekx mixtape still rides a slinky, Bollywood-style Danja beat, and the key line flips the emotional script: 'I had a handle on it/My life, but I broke it.' As anthems to recklessly empowered car sex go, surprisingly melancholy."[25] Scott Shetler from PopCrush asserted that the track blended hip-hop with more "exotic" sounds, in this case a "hypnotic" Indian-sounding vibe.[19] Likewise, in his review of the mixtape, Mike Schiller of PopMatters described "Bad Girls" as the most "obvious call back" to the sound that brought M.I.A. her fame.[26] In consumer guide for MSN Music, critic Robert Christgau named "Bad Girls" as one of three highlights from the Vicki Leekx mixtape.[27]


In 2019, Pitchfork ranked the song 27th on their list of the 200 best songs of the 2010s decade.[28]

Chart performance[edit]

Without being released as a single, "Bad Girls" debuted at number 62 on the UK Singles Chart, and at number 17 on the UK R&B Chart on 11 February 2012. It climbed to position 43 on the former and peaked at 14 on the latter for the week ending 11 March 2012. Selling on digital downloads, the song opened at number 52 on the South Korea Gaon International Singles Download Chart for the week ending 4 February 2012, and at number 58 overall on the South Korea Gaon International Singles Chart.[29][30] "Bad Girls" also charted on the US Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart at number 10 for the week ending 11 February 2012, before peaking at number 5 on this chart. The song debuted at 81 on the Belgium Ultratip Flanders chart in the first week of digital release, before climbing to 38 before physical format distribution. Similarly, it charted on the Canadian Hot 100 at number 92 and the Australian ARIA Singles chart at number 86. On 19 February 2012, the song entered the Swiss Singles Chart at number 61. Within a week on solely downloads, "Bad Girls" charted at number 83 on the French Singles Chart, before climbing to number 61 on the week ending 11 March 2012. "Bad Girls" was voted #99 on Triple J Hottest 100 of 2012.


As of 2013, the song has sold 409,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen Soundscan.[31]

: "Blue Ivy" (Season 4)

90210

: "It Girl, Interrupted" (Season 5)

Gossip Girl

: "Liv" (Series 6)

Skins (UK version)

: "Natural Selection" (first episode of series)

Orphan Black

: "Pilot" and "Take Me with You" (season finale) (both Season 1). Also in "The Parent Trap" (season 4). This song usually plays when she is doing an important delivery. It played in the pilot episode when we first see her at work during a delivery for a patient that was an immigrant and had no insurance. Then we hear this song play again when she and the other doctors deliver triplets (their first time delivering triplets). Most recently, we see it in the episode "The Parent Trap' when she delivers a baby of the first patient of her fertility clinic.

The Mindy Project

: "Baby" (Season 11)

Supernatural

: Season 41, Episode 4 skit

Saturday Night Live

: "The Metaphysical Engine, or What Quill Did" (Series 1)

Class

Singer Gwen Stefani soundtracked her Fall/Winter L.A.M.B. fashion line presentation with a remix of the song during New York Fashion Week in February 2012.[50] To celebrate their 60th anniversary, French clothing company Moncler commissioned 150 ice skaters to perform a routine to "Bad Girls" in Central Park for their 2012 New York Fashion Week Fall/Winter finale.[51] The song was used to soundtrack several shows during London Fashion Week and Milan Fashion Week the same month.[52][53]


"Bad Girls" is featured in episodes of several television series:


The song is also heard in the trailers for The Heat, Spring Breakers, For a Good Time, Call..., Bad Girls Club and Vampire Academy.[54] In addition, the song was used in the films Identity Thief, Son of a Gun, The Bling Ring and Vampire Academy.[55] In 2014, "Bad Girls" was featured on the soundtrack of the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC versions of Grand Theft Auto V.[56]


This song was featured at the end of Ken Block's Gymkhana Eight: Ultimate Exotic Playground; Dubai[57]

all instruments – Danja

Production

Artwork – Mathangi Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam