Bad Idea #3: Using gunshots as song lyrics

The song Paper Planes went triple platinum in 2008 (over 3 million sold) and hit #4 on the US Billboard Hot 100. What most people don’t know is M.I.A.’s label nearly left it off the album.

They couldn’t get past the gunshots. Four of them blasted dead-center in the chorus. Followed by the sound of a gun cocking and a cash register chime. The hook is clearly about armed robbery, sung by kids, and half of it uses sounds instead of words:

“All I wanna do is …
[bang bang bang bang]
And a …
[gun cocking sound] [cash register]
And take your money.”

Violent. A little strange. Drugs and guns and skulls and bones. “Too much” was the initial label response.

It didn’t matter that the track had a hypnotic beat or that it was built around a genius sample of The Clash’s Straight to Hell, merged into what would become a haunting and globally popular summer jam. The label didn’t hear that. They heard trouble.

And they weren’t wrong. The gunshots did get the song banned from certain radio stations. MTV censored it. Even after the album dropped, it sat mostly ignored.

Then something strange happened.

Paper Planes started spreading from the bottom up, through true music fans that put it into movie trailers, curated playlists, music blogs, “mixtape” CDs. A big tipping point for the show was showing up in the Pineapple Express movie. Millions started listening, looping it, and sharing it. It was a long, unorthodox journey, but nearly a year after release, the song cracked the Billboard Hot 100.

By 2009, the track the label dismissed was nominated for Record of the Year.

There’s an untold and improbable truth about the track, though: Paper Planes was never even finished.

Diplo, who co-produced the track with M.I.A., has said they never completed the second verse. They just repeated the same eight lines twice. There was no bridge. No story arc. No polish. It was the kind of thing most artists would call a rough draft.

But, they trusted the mood. It felt raw, but it felt right to both of them.

They believed the half-finished structure and the off-kilter but infectious energy was doing something that overproduction couldn’t. And ultimately, they were right.

Paper Planes works because it’s not trying to work for everyone. It doesn’t resolve. It doesn’t reassure. It makes you feel something specific, and it doesn’t explain itself. The very things that made it a risk (the violence, minimalism, and repetition) are the same things that made it memorable.

In creative work, there’s a belief in refinement as the path to greatness. That if you just keep shaping, polishing, and editing… the brilliance will emerge. Editing and iteration are A PATH, but not the only path.

Sometimes, the best thing you can do is stop before you’re done. Not all your edges need smoothing. Sometimes the edges are the thing.

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Art/Social/Ad

New ideas are born from brushing up against life, a process I call happy collisions. Here are a few pieces of inspiration to keep the ideas flowing: one piece of ART, one SOCIAL post, and one AD (or a bit of clever marketing).

ART

“The weight of love” by Crisco

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SOCIAL

Threads post by NYC Ferry

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AD

DryWater’s “walking product” video is captivating because it’s so simple. A giant product prop walking into Walmart. PS. I had to look it up, but DryWater is an electrolyte powder supplement. Great name.