The “Paper Planes” rapper signed to Jay-Z’s label Roc Nation in 2012 before leaving two years later.
Rapper M.I.A. says she refused to fulfill Jay-Z’s sexist request upon signing to his label. The “Paper Planes” artist — who was born Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam — recently took to Instagram Live to discuss the dissolution of her once-promising musical career, and called out a few famous people she felt contributed to her downfall.
One noteworthy person the “Bad Girls” rapper named was Jay-Z, who she says asked her to drastically change her appearance after she signed to his label Roc Nation in 2012.
“The first thing [Jay-Z] asked me to do was get plastic surgery,” M.I.A. said in a short clip posted by the Instagram account Livebitez a little over a week ago.
She then expressed her suspicion that people in the music industry may watch her Instagram Live and say that she’s merely “insecure” about her music career dying down and she’s only calling people out now to “massage her ego.”
“I’m not insecure because I would have got plastic surgery,” M.I.A. said. “So their argument of ‘Maya’s fucking insecure, that’s why she needs to fucking massage her ego,’ fails. It fails because you turn around and ask … What women do you know who hasn’t had plastic surgery around [Jay-Z]? All of them have. I’m the only one who didn’t, which already proves the fact it’s not insecurity.”
M.I.A. said if she was insecure she “would’ve done that 100 times over.”
M.I.A. joined Roc Nation in 2012 ahead of her fourth album, “Matangi.” She left in 2014.