Second time around

The re-release of M.I.A.'s first
album wins a wider audience for
a rapper whose style reflects
her eclectic roots

All of the hype that has been surrounding Sri Lankan (via England) rapper Mia Arulpragasam and her album, originally released in the United States in February, has been justified. "Arular" is a stunning debut, a dizzying mash-up of revolution-minded electro broken beats, reggae dancehall, Puerto Rican reggaeton and Indian bhagra.

COURTESY MIKE SCHREIBER / INTERSCOPE Mia Arulpragasam named her debut album after her father, Arular.

Now, about five months later after the "hipoisie" have embraced her, the major corporate label Interscope, winners of a major bidding war over the self-dubbed M.I.A., re-releases "Arular" for a larger national audience with some minor changes. And with some track re-sequencing and additional material, the album makes an even stronger case for "Arular" being one of the best albums of the year.

M.I.A.'s fascinating backstory has already been well-documented in the national press: When she was just a baby, she and her family left their adopted home of England to move back to their northern hometown in the South Asian island country located just off the tip of India. Her father (whose name is the album title) started a student activist organization that supported the militant Tamil Tigers who fought for independence from the ruling Singalese. As the ethnic fighting worsened, the by-then 10-year-old Arulpragasam and family, without her often-absent father, first fled to their part-time home of Madras in India, and then back to Britain, specifically a West London housing project.

It was there that Arulpragasam would immerse herself in hip-hop -- in particular, Public Enemy -- and the Asian dancehall underground scene. Her artistry evolved through graffiti-based stencil art (predominantly displayed throughout her CD booklet) and was, for a time, a tourmate with Justine Frischmann's Elastica band and electro sexual provocateur Peaches.

Through her, M.I.A. discovered the primitive Roland MC-505 Groovebox sequencer. M.I.A. used the device to help make what would be her breakout hit in the U.K., "Galang." That instant classic is included on her album.

The Interscope version of the album brings up her follow-up single "Sunshowers" earlier in the track sequence, nicely following up the one-two punch of the rousing "Pull Up the People" and "Bucky Done Gun," with its heraldic horns sample and Afrika Bambaataa old school vibe.

An additional track, "U.R.A.Q.T," is indicative in subject matter of the album's stronger songs like "Amazon," "Hombre" and "10 Dollar." M.I.A. plays up her "exotic allure," only to throw it back in our faces, as she lays bare the cultural contradictions between herself and her white male admirers. "U.R.A.Q.T" is also pushed along by a savvy Quincy Jones sample taken from his "Sanford and Son" TV theme.

While she'd be the first to admit she's not the greatest vocalist around, it doesn't detract from her artistic confidence to adeptly give the people "one for the head and two for the beat."