M.I.A. has announced that her first album since 2016's AIM is called MATA and due this year via her new label home, Island Records. The first single is "The One," which was produced by Rex Kudo (Post Malone, Juice WRLD, etc) and T-Minus (Drake, Kendrick Lamar, etc), and here's what she said to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 about it:
I was in a really happy place. And I know that it was the pandemic, and kind of everything was hitting the fan, but I'd got to a place that was really happy. I did want to make that nice, happy record. Almost like the record that everyone wanted you to make when you made Paper Planes. Then everyone's like, "Why the hell did you make Maya? That was such a depressing record.” In hindsight, it makes sense to people, but at the time everyone was like, "That's the worst record in the world." Now, I feel like, "Okay, well, you know that other record that everyone wanted? This is what it would've been.” I guess it is just about sticking to what you are and the truth. I think, at the end of the day, that is also what this record is about to me, is still trying to find truth. In a way, it's kind of rebellious because everybody's expecting me to put out that really havoc… Everyone's expecting that, but it's not, that's not what it is. It's about the battle of the ego versus you finding yourself and you finding the spiritual leader. Spirituality within, whatever form is given to you. I think that's really interesting, when you think everything, you get challenged by the universe. And that happened to me. Really I'm just here to share that.