Weekly iTunes MP3

Sometimes you do get what you pay for. Take the weekly free downloads in the iTunes Music Store. Most (heck, almost all) are missable, dismissible, entirely mistakable for some other half dozen generic singer-songwriter (or earnest rap, or desultory r’n’b) songs whose names you cannot recollect either. But on a rare occasion, iTunes delivers a winner, such as today, when its email newsletter announced that the single of the week comes from rapper M.I.A., born in Sri Lanka, based in London, hailed in music circles that hunger for the next Dizzee Rascal, the next British hip-hop “it” export. Her first single, the roiling “Galang,” in a three-minute-plus radio edit, would be entirely computerized robot funk, were she not rapping through it like a sweaty ghost in the machinery, and since she’s so intent on hearing her staccato syllables enmeshed with the gearshift rhythms, shouting out “purple haze” as an entreaty to classic rock fans looking for a new thrill, since her verses are even less comprehensible than most of Rascal’s… anyhow, she’s at one with her production like few rappers, who generally seem like guest stars on their own albums. If you’ve got iTunes, this link will take you there.