Paper Planes - Covers and Use in Media

Covers and Use in Media

The song has been covered by multiple artists including Rihanna (left), and appeared in numerous media, including films by Danny Boyle and Michael Moore (centre and right).

The song has been covered, sampled and remixed by various artists as well as being used by a range of media. Canadian band Holy Fuck, an opening act on the People vs. Money Tour tour, created a remix of "Paper Planes" that leaked online on February 2008. Barbadian singer Rihanna has covered the song in live performances and "Paper Planes" has been performed by Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya as his own rendition "Tengazako". American indie rock band Built to Spill covered "Paper Planes" at their live performances in Italy and the English rapper Dizzee Rascal has covered the song at his live performances. Detroit rapper Esham used "Paper Planes" as the basis for his song "Keys to the City". The song has been sampled in live performances by the musician Lowkey who raps "All MPs wanna do is ... take your money". Paper Planes has been covered live by London band The Clientele.

The song's line "No one on the corner has swagger like us" was sampled by West in the song "Swagga Like Us", a song by American rappers T.I. and Jay-Z, West and Lil Wayne. In September 2008 American rapper 50 Cent; State Property members Young Chris and Freeway, as well as Jim Jones released their own remixes of the song. Asked about her feelings regarding how, despite being over a year old, the track was still appearing on high profile mixtapes, she told MTV "I think it's cool when you bring all these rappers and artists like the Clash together... it's cool that they support it. It's so many people that be like, 'I don't know what you're talking about.' It's kind of like 'This is the sh--, and we think it's hot" before adding that having made a track that was organic, creative and not made with marketing be liked and find chart success was satisfying and interesting for the musician, even if charts didn't compute with her.

The song gained popularity in North America following its appearance in the trailer for the film Pineapple Express starring Seth Rogen (left) and James Franco (right).

"Paper Planes" soundtracked the theatrical trailer for the comedy film Pineapple Express starring Seth Rogen and James Franco. A "red-band" trailer for the film Pineapple Express, featuring the song leaked in February 2008, before Sony Pictures had the video removed from YouTube within a few days of its posting. The film's makers had been keen on including the song in the film's main trailer and approached M.I.A.'s U.S. label Interscope Records for permission. She added "Interscope asked me and I was, like, well, since it's just the trailer, that's cool. I didn’t really think twice about it" stating she would have thought more carefully about permitting the song's use if it was in the main film, "scrutinizing what scene they were using it in and stuff like that". Patrick Goldstein's Summer Movie Posse of the Los Angeles Times described its incorporation at the time as "the most impressive use of M.I.A.'s 'Paper Planes' ever". "Paper Planes" and the DFA Records remix both appear in Danny Boyle's drama Slumdog Millionaire; the remix also appears in the film Hancock. Boyle, who took the song with him to India and listened to it during the shoot, described it as a crucial one and "a key song" he had in mind for his film from the onset, before its use in the trailer of Pineapple Express, telling Rodrigo Perez of MTV "originally it was featured very early on in the film, but then we moved it to the halfway mark, and then the song was used in ‘Pineapple Express’ What can you do?" "Paper Planes" was used in the trailer for Michael Moore's documentary Capitalism: A Love Story.

Rap rock supergroup Street Sweeper Social Club perform a live cover of "Paper Planes" at their shows and a studio version appears on their 2010 EP The Ghetto Blaster EP. "Paper Planes" is parodied by Funny or Die with a music video released on July 27, 2010. The Los Angeles Dodgers used "Paper Planes" as their victory song during their three-week effort to win the National League West title in the 2008 season in the United States. " Paper Planes" is covered by the pop punk band Freshman 15, and by the alternative rock band This Century for the compilation album Punk Goes Pop 3.

The song is used as entry music by British comedienne Shappi Khorsandi.

"Paper Planes" is used in the opening intro of the video game Far Cry 3.