Filed under: Music, Television, News, Celeb Updates
This year's annual Metropolitan Ball brought out an array of tastemakers from the fashion industry -- not to mention appearances from Vogue magazine's Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, Kerry Washington and Oprah Winfrey.
For London rap star M.I.A. the glitzy gala, which took place May 3 at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, left a bitter taste in her mouth when it came to some of the event's attendees.
In an exclusive interview with London's Time Out magazine, the 'Paper Planes' lyricist vented on the treatment she received from producer Pharrell Williams and the almighty Winfrey.
"He was just telling me off like crazy: 'You can't just keep beating people up...,'" she recalled about her interaction with Williams. "I thought he'd seen the 'Born Free' video, so I was actually listening because I thought he must be saying my video's too violent. He was like, 'You know you can't just keep giving people that shit, you have to hand out the sugar.'"
"I was a bit offended because he was talking about the shepherd and the sheep, and I was like, 'I never think I'm making music for sheep, I'm making music for shepherds... people who think like individuals and who want to be their own f---ing leader.'"
Diddy complimented the Grammy Award nominee (legally known as Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam) following the N.E.R.D. frontman's offhand comments and insisted he apologize to her.
Williams wasn't the only person who got on M.I.A.'s bad side -- she had choice words about America's Queen of All Media.
"Oprah seemed like she was giving me the cold shoulder," she revealed. "She was with [David Bowie's wife] Iman. Iman was always dancing with me, hugging and kissing me, but Oprah seemed really pissed off with me."
"Also she made this huge speech at the ball praising Lady Gaga and about how she is helping Americans to be the best of themselves. There's millions of other Americans who represent that for me. Is [it] about numbers? About how much you're selling?"
M.I,A, added, "Is it truly about the journey? Because [Gaga's] journey isn't that difficult: to go from the f---king Upper East Side to a f---ing performing arts school and on to a stage at the museum of f---ng wherever. That journey's about four miles.'"
Aside from having issues with rich, famous and successful people, M.I.A. released her third studio album 'Maya' (/\/\/\Y/\) earlier this month and features the singles 'Born Free' and 'XXXO.'