MIA says that Jay-Z could never have become as successful as he has without the help of Kanye West. She reflected on her relationship with both rappers and the evolution of their careers during a recent appearance on The PBD Podcast.
The conversation began with MIA discussing how powerful Jay-Z was in the music industry when she signed with Roc Nation. "I'd like to talk about Kanye more because I think he was very important to the rise of Jay-Z," she said. "He added the creativity to that whole thing. I don't think they give him enough respect and dues. Yes, Jay-Z was more of a business man. Kanye was always the artistic one. He's the creative one. I connected with that and Jay-Z obviously had the clout and the reputation. But, I saw that they both represented two different dynamics." From there, MIA brought up Watch the Throne and remarked that only "one person was gonna get the throne." She also noted that Jay-Z supported Barrack Obama while Kanye West has supported Donald Trump.
MIA's Relationship With Jay-Z
MIA first signed with Jay-Z and Roc Nation in 2012, but left the label just over a year later. She recently alleged that the legendary rapper pressured her into getting plastic surgery after she inked the deal. “Even when I met Jay-Z and I signed to Roc Nation, the first thing he told me to do is get plastic surgery,” she said on Instagram Live, last November. “I’m not insecure because I would have got plastic surgery. So their argument of ‘Maya’s insecure, that’s why she needs to massage her ego,’ fails. It fails because you turn around and ask… 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.”
While Jay-Z and Kanye West were close collaborators for a number of years, their relationship has gotten much worse in the last decade. During his recent tirade on X (formerly Twitter), Kanye reflected on their relationship in between bizarre posts about Jay's family. “I LOVE JAY Z AND I DO FEEL BAD," he admitted. "I ALWAYS FELT LIKE THE BLACK SHEEP. LIKE I WANTED FAMILY IN THIS MUSIC SH*T. I’D RUN ON STAGES THINKING I WAS DOING THE RIGHT THING AND WOULD ALWAYS BE A SLIGHT."
[Via]
