She has often been called one of rap’s most polarizing personalities (have a seat, Azealia Banks!), but that has never stopped M.I.A. from speaking her mind, no matter what the issue at hand may be. Ten years after releasing her debut record Arular, she is back waxing poetic and in the process releasing a few verbal bombs that will detonating the internet for at least a week. Among them:
On her feud with fellow artist Diplo:
When I got signed by Interscope, he literally smashed my hotel room and broke all the furniture because he was so angry I got picked up by a major label and it was the corniest thing in the world that could possibly happen. And then Missy Elliott called me for the first time in 2005 to work with me on her record, and I’m sure we had a massive fight about that — the fact that I was talking to anyone who was, like, popular. I wish I enjoyed it because I had this person on my shoulder the whole time saying, “It’s shit, it’s shit, it’s shit. You shouldn’t be on the charts. You shouldn’t be in the magazines and you should not be going to interviews. You should not be doing collaborations with famous people. You should be an underground artist.”
at the Super Bowl with Nicki Minaj and Madonna
When asked if Diplo was jealous of her fame, she divulged:
“Oh, 100 percent. It’s only now when I look back at it in 2015, I can see that he was just jealous and he couldn’t wait to be Taylor Swift’s best friend and date Katy Perry.”
M.I.A. and Diplo
M.I.A. apparently misses the early 00s with a fever that most Americans do not. She had this to say about the decade that brought us Bush, the Iraq war and the beginnings of bad bad hip hop:
“And at that time when Arular happened the world was so much more cultured. We had way better fucking music. People were having way better sex. People were eating way better food.”
And then there’s the Oprah debacle that she doesn’t back down from:
“In 2009, Time nominated me for one of the most influential people of the 21st century or something and I met Oprah at that party. And I was like, “Hey, people are gonna fucking die in my country. Like, please pay attention.” And she was like, “You’re shit because you were rude to Lady Gaga and I’m not talking to you. And I’m gonna interview Tom Cruise jumping on my sofa, so fuck off.”
That’s it, M.I.A. You have officially been added to Oprah’s shit list.
Proceed with caution!