A lot of people made a big fuss when Diplo tweeted that M.I.A.’s album was a “turd,†but Vulture gave him the benefit of the doubt. They’re pals! Pals rib each other on Twitter about their highly anticipated, already much lambasted musical projects all the time! But, oh, wait, nope — that wasn’t really a joke. In this new BlackBook interview, Diplo just goes in on poor M.I.A.:
I think she’s a really controversial artist and she’s one of the most important people doing music right now, because people expect a lot. And I think that the record was like — she didn’t care about it. I was in the studio with her, she didn’t write anything. The one good review is that, at least people — she’s on the defensive for the whole record, and that doesn’t sound very authentic. Me and Switch tried our best to be quality control of the record and she didn’t want that. She kind of went on her own way. I was like, Look, nobody in your crew — we were the only people she could trust, and our asses were on the line too. We got here because of working with people like her. We care about the way things sound, and when the people that she works with don’t, then it’s fucked up. She’s not a talented person in any aspect. She’s got ideas bigger than any artist I’ve ever met and she’s someone to fuckin’ make that happen. All she has is a bunch of yes men around her and they kinda suck.
He goes on to say that she’s “amazing†and he’d love to work with her again, meaning there’s a good chance that, at one point or another, Diplo will have to attempt to explain away this “She’s not a talented person in any aspect†bit. Would be fun to be in the room for that conversation! [Update: Turns out Diplo was misquoted, and actually said “She’s got a talent in every aspect.†Still, after completely ragging on M.I.A’s album, there should still be a riveting “let’s make up†conversation in the offing!]
Diplo on M.I.A.’s New Album: ‘She Didn’t Care About It’ [BlackBook]