M.I.A. is armed with a brand-new record deal — with Island Records — and a new song: “The One.” This comes about six months after “Babylon,” a single M.I.A. released as part of an auction of her 2010 mixtape Vicki Leekx as an NFT. Prior to that, M.I.A. teamed up with Young Thug and Travis Scott on the collaborative track “FRANCHISE.” Ever since her last full-length album, 2016’s AIM, M.I.A. has released some one-off tracks (“CTRL,” “OHMNI 202091“) and launched a Patreon. In November of last year, she announced via Instagram that her sixth studio album would be called MATA.