Major Lazer has shared “Where’s The Daddy?” featuring M.I.A., one of several previously unreleased tracks set to appear on Guns Don’t Kill People…Lazers Do (15th Anniversary Edition), an expanded reissue of the group’s seminal 2009 debut album coming Nov. 15 on Mad Decent.
An unexpected new video, also out today, reunites Major Lazer founders Diplo and Switch with M.I.A. for the first time in over ten years, bringing the circa-2009 track into the present with a playful Cybertruck joyride through Malibu. The “Where’s The Daddy?” video, directed by Renèe George, also marks Switch’s first official appearance with Major Lazer since formally departing the group in 2011.
Diplo and Switch have been essential contributors to M.I.A.’s sound—as both individual producers and frequent collaborators—since the start of her career, with the pair uniting to produce her signature single, 2007’s “Paper Planes.” Diplo and Switch also credit M.I.A. for helping to birth Major Lazer, as the project grew out of a surplus of beats the producers concocted for her in the late 2000s.
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“M.I.A. was always the catalyst for our side project…we made too many beats for her,” Diplo explains. “We decided to go record them in Jamaica because the artists were extremely talented, the productions at the time were cutting edge, and it was cheap. We made this Major Lazer album down there…and started a little movement that ended up having a few billion streams. It’s cool to put out ‘Where’s The Daddy?’ now because M.I.A. was the third daddy of Major Lazer.”
