Many people tend to forget that British music star M.I.A. was signed to Roc Nation back in 2012. Alhough the relationship dissolved just two years later, M.I.A.’s interaction with Roc Nation boss Jay-Z seems to have left quite an impression on her.
On Friday (Nov. 29), the “Paper Planes” artist took to Instagram Live to spill some disturbing beans about what Jay-Z asked of her when she put her John Hancock on that Roc Nation contract and revealed that Hova actually implored her to get some plastic surgery done.
Word?!
Dispelling any notion that she would need plastic surgery to get over any insecurity she may have, M.I.A. explained why she rebuffed the request saying, “Even when I met Jay-Z and signed to Roc Nation the first thing he told me to do was get plastic surgery. I’m not insecure because I would have got plastic surgery. So their argument of ‘Maya’s f-cking insecure, that’s why she needs to f*cking massage her ego,’ fails. Fails. Because you turn around and ask the mutha*cka – what women do you know who hasn’t had plastic surgery around you? All of them have. I’m the only one who didn’t, which already proves the fact it’s not insecurity.”
We can’t be mad at that at all. If the woman doesn’t want any work done on herself she shouldn’t have any work done even at the behest of her boss.
Continuing to explain herself, M.I.A. said, “Because if I was insecure I would have done that 100 times over. Even when I met Jay-Z and I signed to Roc Nation, the first thing he told me to do is get plastic surgery and I didn’t because it’s okay. Guess what, I’m 50. And I’m totally fine with the fact I am because, yeah, I f*cking took off when I was 30. It took 10 more f-cking years than any other f-cker because I was the first and I was the new. I was making something interesting happen that wasn’t f*cking happening before.”
Well, y’all can expect social media to be disgusted and begin to start going at Hov for trying to get M.I.A. to make some enhancements to herself. That being said, good for her for standing her ground and refusing the request.
According to MadameNoire, the relationship between herself and Roc Nation soured just two years after signing with them in 2012, and from the sound of it, it seems like M.I.A. not playing ball with them might’ve been the reason.
Per MadameNoire:
One of the first major issues was regarding a documentary that was about her. Roc Nation continued to delay the promotion for it and frustrations grew. The director of the project, Steve Loveridge, leaked the trailer for it, which Interscope immediately took down. This led to Loveridge quitting the project.
That next month, M.I.A. threatened to leak Matangi if Interscope wouldn’t stop delaying it and give it a release date.
The 50-year-old explained the reasons behind the delay of her fourth album, originally scheduled for release in December 2012.
According to Fader, in January 2013, months before her warnings, she told Gold Coast Bulletin about her label’s concerns with the project.
“I thought I’d finished it. I finished it and then I handed the record in, like a couple of months ago,” she said. “At the moment, I’ve been told it’s too positive. So we’re having a bit of an issue at the label. They’re like, ‘You need to like darken it up a bit’. I don’t know what it is but as soon as I work that out. I’m taking my time to decide what they mean. It’s an interesting one for me. It’s like ‘We just built you up as the public enemy No. 1 and now you’re coming out with all this positive stuff.’”
M.I.A. ultimately bounced before the end of 2013.
Check out M.I.A. talk about her situation at Roc Nation below, and let us know your thoughts in the comments section.