Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty ImagesWell, that's some serious shade.
In honor of the 10-year anniversary of the album Arular, singer M.I.A. sat down with Rolling Stone to chat about her rise fame, but instead of simply focusing on her own personal successes, the 39-year-old performer took the opportunity to slam Oprah and well as her ex-boyfriend Diplo—and it's safe to say she not mince her words.
"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 f--king die in my country. Like, please pay attention," the songwriter recalled. "And she was like, "You're s--t 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 f--k off."
Born in London, but raised in northern Sri Lanka, M.I.A., whose real name is Mathangi Arulpragasam, has been very outspoken about the widespread human rights abuses and the oppression of the Sri Lankan Tamil people. She has received backlash for her views and has even been dubbed a "terrorist" due, in part, to her father's past association with the guerilla organization, Tamil Tigers.
"Yeah, she didn't talk to me. She shut me down," M.I.A. continued of Oprah. "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 f--king Oprah and every American told me you're going to save the world."
Ill feelings towards Oprah aside, the singer wasn't done slamming fellow celebs and went on to trash her ex Diplo.
"When I got signed by Interscope, he [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," she shared. "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 s--t, it's s--t, it's s--t. 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."
"So the whole two years I was with him, I just let him dictate," she added. "I basically had this man dictate to me how everything in America that I experienced was completely, like, irrelevant and it was nothing."
Asked if her ex accused her of selling out, M.I.A. replied, "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."
Ouch.
(In spite of her harsh words, Rolling Stone notes that, just one day after the interview, the two had a moment on Instagram and even called themselves best friends.)
In terms of Arular, M.I.A. reflected back on the album's ability to push boundaries and suggested that America is now experiencing a ''f--king regression" due to the "black and white divide."
"All of this stuff, it's not progression," she stated of society's technological advancements. "In 2005, it's actually a really amazingly progressive time. You had [President George W.] Bush in power, but the people were super f--king progressive. Otherwise, I wouldn't have happened."