Wayne pointed out this post on Vibe’s blog about the abundance of M.I.A. “Paper Planes” remixes floating around. I had already collected a bunch over the past year, but recently they’ve been popping up like mushrooms on shit after a rain storm. Many of them seem to be legit/official (or semi-official) versions featuring prominent rappers like 50 Cent, Jim Jones, and Bun B.
To top it all off, the new T.I. track “S.L.U. (Swagga Like Us)” features a “Paper Planes” sample as the main refrain. M.I.A. repeats “No one on the corner has swagger like us” while T.I. and his brothers in top-40 rap Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, and Kanye West, do their thing over the top.
In light of this situation I felt the best thing is to make a mixtape, reggae-style, on which I juggle the “riddim” — in this case Diplo’s crunked-out, Clash-lifting beat.
DJ Mix Download
DJ C “Paper Planes Mix (M.I.A. Diplo et al)” ->
[audio:https://archive.mashit.com/audio/Paper_Planes_Mix%20_M.I.A._Diplo_et_al.mp3]
Here’s the Obama one, fam. Let’s win this election!
MP3 Download
M.I.A. “Paper Planes (Rock City Obama Version)” ->
[audio:https://archive.mashit.com/audio/Paper-Planes-Rock-City-Obama-Version.mp3]
DJ C “Paper Planes Mix” Tracklist
- M.I.A. “Paper Planes (Rock City Obama Version)”
- M.I.A. “Paper Planes (Original Chorus)”
- M.I.A. “Paper Planes (Afrikan Boy & Rye Rye Remix)”
- M.I.A. “Paper Planes Freestyle (ft. Trey Songz)”
- M.I.A. “Calle13 vs MIA (Villa Diamante Mix)”
- M.I.A. “Paper Planes Guacharaca”
- M.I.A. “Tengazako (Diplo’s Paper Planes RMX ft. Esau Mwamwaya)”
- M.I.A. “”Paper Planes” (ft. 50 Cent, Clean Version)”
- M.I.A. “Paper Planes (Remix ft Bun B & Rich Boy)”
- M.I.A. “Paper Planes (Remix ft. Jim Jones)”
- M.I.A. “Paper Planes (Remix ft. Freeway)”
- M.I.A. “Paperplanes (Instrumental)”
- Rihanna “Umbrella (Acapella)”
- T.I. “Swagga Like Us ft. Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Jay-Z”
nice work, C! i’ve been loving how much remixing has been taking off in the last few years. seems every big song now invites dozens of versions, worldwide. in a similar vein, i’ve been doing a mini-a-milli-mega-mix in my sets recently. maybe i should mix that down. my collection is hardly complete, tho. (how could it be? prolly a new one every day.)
Thank’s Wayne!
You’re right, even while I was writing this post I discovered there are many more “Paper Planes” rmxs that I didn’t have yet when I made the mix. For example, this awesome Diplo one with Cham on it.
Can’t wait to hear the Milli-Mixdown!
PS: Unlike the way many underground artists will take a pop track and remix it (which probably accounts for the vast majority of remixes) many of these are pop artists doing remixes for of M.I.A. who’s arguably more underground, at least in the U.S. where these vocalists reside.
A bunch of these were obviously solicited by the M.I.A. camp, but I’m not sure they all were. Particularly interesting is “SLU” which features a very prominent M.I.A. vocal sample as the refrain behind not one, but four Billboard #1 recording artists. I’m not sure weather that gives her more or less “street cred,” but you know what? I’m sick of that tired argument about her. I think it’s pretty rad!
Hey Trunk,
I love that you put these up here for free. I’m jammin on it right now!
Love it. Thanks. 🙂
Love that Rock City Obama Version, so playing that this Tuesday. Thanks dude!
looks like DJ Noodles was on top of this a few weeks ago —
http://djnoodles.net/blog/2008/09/03/dj-noodles-paper-planes-fix-your-face-radio-vol-4-mixtape/
he also did an “a milli” mixtape, so maybe i need not to, except that i’d love to involve some of the more obscure/international versions
as for “street cred,” i’m not sure exactly, but it’s definitely something to hear MIA’s voice on hot97 in NYC and jam’n94.5 here in boston
Joe Strummer and the Clash rock on from beyond the grave.
Booo-yah!
Straight to Hell, Boys….straight to hell, boys.
“Lemme tell ya bout your blood bamboo kid;
it ain’t Coca-Cola, it’s rice.”
villa diamante step up! saludos mashit amigos.