British and Sri Lankan lady rapper M.I.A. (Maya Arulpragasam) is makin’ money. Besides her recent engagement to Warner Music Group (WMG) big-wig Edgar Bronfman’s son, rocker Benjamin Brewer, she is getting paid by some notorious sponsors. M.I.A. collected $100k for performing at an MTV Movie Awards after-party and she only had to be on stage for half an hour! The party was in West Hollywood and sponsored by Converse One Star and Target.

After performing, M.I.A. jumped on top of a photo booth and told the audience how much money she’d be making. She is very politically active and told the crowd she would use the money to build schools in Liberia. She said it cost $52,000 to build a school meant for 1,000 kids. A rapper using her insane paychecks to do good, who would’ve thought?

It may not feel like it in many parts of the US, but spring and summer music festivals aren’t that far off. The lineup for this year’s Sasquatch Festival, held at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, WA. Leading the bill will be R.E.M., The Cure and The Flaming Lips UFO Show. Notable support includes M.I.A., Flight of the Conchords, David Bazan (of Pedro the Lion) and The Breeders. This year’s festival will also include a comedy tent with a lineup to be announced. Full list of bands available after the jump.

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The Great Lawn, Treasure Island, CA
Saturday, Sept. 16th
Photos by Ryan Prado

Read the full review at Synthesis.net. Photos of Ghostland Observatory, M.I.A. and Thievery Corporation after the jump. (more…)

Critics and cred seekers were powerless against M.I.A.’s first release Arular, and I fell for it pretty hard too. Her sophomore effort Kala will be released tomorrow on XL/Interscope, and it kinda makes me wish I didn’t have such a crippling fear of dance floors. Spike Jonze spent a day with Maya Arulpragasam traveling around London where they talked about Polish hairdressers on ketamine, getting beat up in Greenwich, current events and a whole bunch of other stuff. Jonze posted it on VBS.TV, where he’s a creative director, and you can check it out here.

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