Synopsis

Set in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, the video follows M.I.A. as she moves through the neighborhood with a food truck, presenting herself as a street vendor while conducting a series of illicit transactions. Chains, watches, cash, and other valuables change hands as she performs among local residents and storefronts. The colorful street footage is framed by stark black-and-white shots of paper airplanes gliding above Brooklyn, creating a contrast between everyday community life and the song's sharper themes of migration, commerce, and suspicion.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed in Bedford-Stuyvesant after an earlier plan to shoot in a factory on the Ecuadorian border became impractical. M.I.A.'s touring schedule reportedly left her with only one day available for filming.

• Nigerian rapper Afrikan Boy appears as M.I.A.'s partner in the food-vending operation.

• Beastie Boys members Mike D and Ad-Rock make cameo appearances as customers buying goods from the pair.

• MTV broadcast a censored version that removed the cannabis reference and the gunshot sounds heard in the song. M.I.A. objected publicly, arguing that the edits weakened the video's intended meaning.

• Spike Jonze was originally expected to make the video, and some preliminary footage was reportedly shot before the final concept was completed with a different production.

• The contrast between the playful paper airplanes and the images of money, weapons, and underground trading mirrors the song's satire of how immigrants and outsiders are viewed in the United States.