Paper Planes (song)

Paper Planes is an alternative hip hop song by British hip hop artist M.I.A.. It was released on February 11, 2008. It is from her second studio album, Kala. The song samples the 1982 song Straight to Hell by British rock band The Clash. Because of this, the members of the band were credited as co-writers. The song also combines with African folk music.
The song did very well, making it M.I.A.'s biggest commercial success. It is because it reached the top 20 in several countries. This includes Denmark and the United Kingdom. It also peaked at number 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Because of this, it made it M.I.A.'s first and only song to chart in the US top 100 as a lead artist.
There was a music video for this song. It was recorded by Bernard Gourley. It took place in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York. It depicts M.I.A. as an undercover dealer. It also features images of paper planes flying overhead. MTV censored the cannabis references and gunshot sounds in the song. This upset M.I.A., as she expressed it on her MySpace account.
This song also gained controversy. Due to the gunshot noises, it resembles M.I.A.'s criticism of the ongoing war crimes in Sri Lanka. Due to M.I.A. sharing ethnic tamil backgrounds, some have theories that M.I.A. supported terrorism. She was also a supporter of the Tamil Tigers. This also led to death threats.