Diplo Responds to M.I.A.’s Breakup Criticisms: ‘I Was Really Jealous and Sad’

In a March interview with Rolling Stone, M.I.A. reflected on her acclaimed debut LP, 2005’s Arular, and how her mainstream success led to a heated falling out with collaborator/ex-boyfriend Diplo. “When I got signed by Interscope, he literally smashed my hotel room and broke all the furniture because he was so angry I got picked up by a major label,” the rapper said, claiming the producer was controlling and envious. Now Diplo has responded to the criticism in a new interview with Billboard, agreeing that he was “really jealous and sad, and probably mad when she signed to a major label.”

“I had a lot of control when we started, and I was really proud of the music we made,” he said, confirming that “nothing she said [in the Rolling Stone interview] was a lie.” “The label promised her all these people to work with, and I was like, ‘But your thing is this,'” he continued. “I probably made mistakes in our relationship, but we made awesome music. Every time we had a fight, we made good music after.” 

Diplo added that M.I.A. recently apologized for her comments in person after having not seen each other in five years. (The two did apparently reunite, based on their respective Instagram and Twitter photos.) But the rapper rejected the apology claim on Twitter, writing, “I didn’t apologies [sic], I said you owe an apology to my people.” The “people” reference likely points to the Tamil of Sri Lanka, who suffered mass murder and other injustices during the Sri Lankan Civil War.

“I haven’t spoke to him since he kind of threw me under the bus in the New York Times,” M.I.A. told Rolling Stone in the aforementioned interview. “I don’t mind if he said bad stuff about me, but to discredit and to devalue what happened in Sri Lanka and with Tamil people during the war is something that is a bit disgusting. Because there were real consequences to that article, where people died, real shit happened, and people are still going through it.”

Diplo’s latest project is Peace Is the Mission, his upcoming third album with dancehall-EDM trio Major Lazer. And last month, he teamed with fellow electronic superstar Skrillex to release their debut album as Jack Ü.

“I want to find a new artist I can fight with all the time and make awesome songs with,” Diplo told Billboard. “That’s Skrillex. (Laughs.) We’re thinking about doing something for Major Lazer with [M.I.A.]. She’s so awesome still, and her attitude is much better now.”

Diplo also updated the publication on his progress co-producing the next Justin Bieber LP with his Jack Ü collaborator. “[Skrillex and I] were in Miami and listened to a bunch of his demos,” he said. “There’s a couple of good records. We’re hopefully going to have some time with him this summer. We definitely want to return the favor for him, because it was a big deal he gave [Jack Ü] ‘Where Are U Now.’ It’s one of the strongest records he had on his album, but he had no production for it. We transformed it into something different. It’s crazy because it’s the first radio record he’s had since ‘Baby.'”