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M.I.A. Says That Diplo Didn’t Discover Her

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M.I.A. took to Instagram to proclaim that her ex-beau and collaborator Diplo did not, in fact, discover her. The singer posted clip of an interview where Diplo talks about discovering the singer at a party at the London nightclub Fabric. She denies this in the long caption that accompanies the video.

“I discovered diplo because Steve Mackey played me a song by him released on big dada,” she says, referring to the British independent label. “I found out on a “flyer” he was djing and spent 16 pounds and bought my own way into fabric club in London . No one put me on the list! Nobody paid for it! I approached him and gave him my record!”

M.I.A. goes on to talk about Diplo’s fidelity and her role in bringing Major Lazer together. In her account, M.I.A. and former Major Lazer member Switch were making Kala‘s “Boyz” in Jamaica and Trinidad. The pieces started to come together once “Boyz” blew up in the islands.

“[Switch] turned up a year later and networked in JA saying he produced BOYZ coz the song blew in Jamaica,” M.I.A. types. “Walshy [Fire, current Major Lazer member] was the directors roommate and Chris [Jillionaire] was my day to day in Trinidad.

M.I.A.

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“[I]t’s important you don’t see me as a Iil thing diplo discovered because I’m a brown woman,” she continues to conclude, “and this is the first story of a brown female musician who smashed it for the first time . That didn’t happen because I accidentally walked passed diplo.”

I just want to clear this up Here’s a lil story of how this happened. I discovered diplo because Steve Mackey played me a song by him released on big dada! I found out on a “flyer” he was djing and spent 16 pounds and bought my own way into fabric club in London . No one put me on the list! Nobody paid for it! I approached him and gave him my record! There was no label no A N R no channels. a handful of people believed in me , then when I got a deal , they turned on me. This was why i forged my own path and style and genre. I didn’t want anyone to say they made me! To this day so many people have made careers off me and the same people distort history destroy the story because of my politics , which he played a part in cementing. He said “politics is a terrible thing for music”in 2010 in the NYT article . During this time when 400 000 Tamil were getting bombed to death , he used to have a dart board of my face on his rider . Jus sayin . “He text me “you’re walking backwards into a brick wall” when the NYT article came out. While I was defending privacy laws with a newborn baby like it’s me against the world. No one came to my shows during this time because of that article and racist memes mad decent were spreading through hipsters. I let him cash in on the sound because I had no choice. I felt it was important to defend freedom of speech, even for American people and couldn’t play the game. Everyone involved in major lazer now came together through me. I made boyz in Jamaica and Trinidad. I took switch there carried beers up the mountain everyday . Wes wasn’t there because he was cheating on me in Brazil at the time. he turned up a year later and networked in JA saying he produced BOYZ coz the song blew in Jamaica. Walshy was the directors roommate and Chris was my day to day in Trinidad. it’s important you don’t see me as a Iil thing diplo discovered because I’m a brown woman , and this is the first story of a brown female musician who smashed it for the first time . That didn’t happen because I accidentally walked passed diplo. Ta! This is literally 1% of the story!

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For his part, Diplo delivered a Twitter response that seems courteous on the surface.

Although Diplo and M.I.A. broke up as a couple back in 2008, they’ll still be tied together thanks to the success of Kala, which celebrated its 10th anniversary earlier this month. The album’s big hit “Paper Planes” broke them into mainstream conscious. Recently, M.I.A. has been sporadically releasing songs while Diplo pings between Major Lazer and producing records of pop stars.

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