M.I.A. Alleges Jay-Z’s Pressured Her To Get Plastic Surgery

It’s no secret that a lot of women who are artists are encouraged to enhance their physical features once they are signed. But there are some women who choose to keep their natural figures. 

“Paper Planes” rapper M.I.A. called out Jay-Z on the subject. She told her Instagram Live audience on Nov. 29 that her former boss attempted to get her to do plastic surgery.

In the clip, she argued about how some unspecified people made the claim that she is insecure. She said, “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 those (inaudible) 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.” 

It’s not clear who the “they” was that M.I.A. was referring to in the clip. She debunked the theory, suggesting that she would have gotten the surgery if she lacked confidence.

“Because if I was insecure I would have done that 100 times over,” she said. “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.”

Jay-Z’s entertainment company, Roc Nation, signed the British-Sri Lankan artist in 2012. She left just shy of 2014 after some disputes with the label. 

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.’”

Before the year could end, M.I.A. announced her departure from the label via X, formerly known as Twitter, on Dec. 31.

She wrote, “2013 i [deleted] old tweet to bring u this. im leaving @RocNation . Thank to everyone who supported the M.I.A. #MATANGI LP. HAPPY NEW YEAR | 2014.”

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