Pitchfork

Front page photo by Kirstie Shanley

Not that we'd ever suggest that M.I.A. was following in Diplo's footsteps, but she is indeed helping her old pal Wes' Heaps Decent project come back with power power. On a recent trip to Australia, M.I.A.-- along with French rapper Yelle, producers Tepr and Grand Marnier, and some young ladies from a school within an Australian youth detention center-- have recorded a track with the likely title of "Popo Mind Control".

Beyond describing the jam as the "HOTTEST CLUB TRACK YOU EVER HEARD," the Heaps Decent MySpace blog explains the sessions like this:

Early last week we got an email from M.I.A.'s management saying that M.I.A. was keen to get involved with us while she was in Australia for the Parklife festival. "Hell yeah!" we excitedly replied, and a few days later we were in the lobby of the Sydney Hilton with Maya and a bunch of Frenchies.

Turns out these Frenchies were pop starlet/gangsta rapper YELLE and her producers and bandmates TEPR and GRAND MARNIER! We were big fans of them too, so we asked them if they wanted to come and help record the greatest song ever. Lucky for us they did.

The next day we hit the road... after an hour or so of driving we reached our destination - an all girls school in a juvenile justice centre where we would spend the next two days making beats and rhymes with the small student population...

Produced by Tepr & Grand Marinier and featuring M.I.A and the girls from the centre this new song we did is CRAZY. I don't even know what it's called. Although M.I.A. screams "popo mind control!!" on the hook so maybe it's called that? How about we say it's a crazy hot new jam with the working title of POPO MIND CONROL?

The plan, it seems, is to "release this jam legit" once hott producer Switch-- whose touch is all over Kala-- is done mixing it. As Diplo mentioned when he told us about the project, all proceeds will go back into the Heaps Decent project.

M.I.A., who's currently in Japan, recently announced she'd pegged the Cool Kids to open much of her North American tour. Those dates after the jump.

M.I.A.:

10-05 Nagoya, Japan - Club Quattro
10-06 Osaka, Japan - Club Quattro
10-08 Tokyo, Japan - Club Quattro
10-09 Tokyo, Japan - Liquid Room
10-18 New York, NY - Terminal 5 ^
10-19 New York, NY - Terminal 5
10-20 Toronto, Ontario - Kool Haus
10-26 New Orleans, LA - Voodoo Music Experience
10-27 Las Vegas, NV - Vegoose Festival
10-29 Miami, FL - Studio A ^
10-31 Atlanta, GA - Earthlink Live ^
11-02 Houston, TX - Club V @ Verizon Wireless Theatre ^*
11-03 Austin, TX - Hogg Memorial Auditorium (University of Texas) ^
11-04 Dallas, TX - House of Blues ^
11-07 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore Auditorium ^
11-08 San Francisco, CA - Mezzanine ^
11-09 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern ^
11-11 San Diego, CA - Canes ^
11-14 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom ^
11-15 Portland, OR - Roseland Theater ^
11-16 Seattle, WA - Showbox SoDo ^
11-20 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue ^
11-21 Chicago, IL - House of Blues ^
11-23 Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre ^
11-24 Detroit, MI - Majestic Theatre ^
11-26 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis ^
11-29 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club ^
12-01 Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory ^

^ with the Cool Kids
* with Paul Wall