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Hear the Unfinished ‘Baby’ M.I.A. Was Writing for Madonna

Every bad boy has his soft side, those old Monster Ballads commercials used to assure us. The same would appear to go for bad girls, too, on the basis of M.I.A.’s cleaned-up and relatively vulnerable song “Baby.” Allegedly produced by William Orbit, the just-surfaced track finds Maya cooing for a “dude” who can “make a woman out of me,” atop spare, uncluttered electronics that are indeed evocative of Orbit’s work with Madonna and Blur.

So evocative, Maya tweeted that this leak was a work-in-progress she was writing for Madonna when she contributed to the Queen of Pop’s most recent album, MDNA (which makes the Orbit production plausible). “who ever LEAKED THAT BABY song should know that ive never heard this version B4 it sounds crazy different 2 wht i worte for madonna,” M.I.A. posted today. “this song wasnt recorded for myLP> so its not complete > besides i now have way more to say to my man …..” she added.

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