Bad Girls

M.I.A.’s Bad Girls works because she’s not apologizing for any of it. No redemption, no softening, just someone who’d figured out that being the thing everyone feared was more honest and more fun than playing nice. The track is sparse—just gunshot samples and her voice mostly—which means the attitude has to land on its own. And it does. There’s no defensiveness in it either. She’s not trying to convince you of anything. She just owns the space completely and doesn’t care what you make of it.