MIA criticises ‘jealous’ Diplo and says Oprah Winfrey called her a ‘terrorist’

Outspoken artist gives explosive interview on the 10th anniversary of debut album 'Arular'

MIA has opened up about her feud with producer, and ex-boyfriend, Diplo while also claiming that Oprah Winfrey once called her a “terrorist”

The outspoken artist gave an interview to Rolling Stone on the 10th anniversary of her debut album ‘Arular’ this week and, as well as discussing the 2005 release, opened up about the two separate occasions on which she claims Oprah refused to talk to her as well as her feelings for Diplo.

On the subject of the Major Lazer producer, MIA said that her relationship with Diplo broke down over what she now sees to have been jealousy over her success and started as soon as she signed her first record deal with XL Recordings.

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“XL took notice and gave me a record deal, and that was like the most liberating thing on the planet,” MIA says, adding that when she signed with Interscope, Diplo “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.”

The same went for when big name artists came into her world. “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,” she said. “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.'”

“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. But at that time I believed him. I just felt like he was right, and he was something of a political, righteous person with some values. I didn’t realize it was just jealousy.

Despite her comments about Diplo, the pair recently met up and posted the following picture on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

Best friends forever @miamatangi

A post shared by Thomas Wesley (@diplo) on

Meanwhile, Oprah Winfrey also comes in for criticism from MIA.

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“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,” she says. “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.’ … She didn’t talk to me. She shut me down. She took that photo of me, but she was just like, ‘I can’t talk to you because you’re crazy and you’re a terrorist.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m not. I’m a Tamil and there are people dying in my country and you have to like look at it because you’re fucking Oprah and every American told me you’re going to save the world.'”

MIA recently shared a new song titled ‘Can See Can Do’. The song is MIA’s first new music since the release of ‘Matangi’ in 2013. Listen to the song below.

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