“I don’t think they give him enough respect and dues” — M.I.A. credits Kanye West as a key contributor to Jay-Z’s success

British-Sri Lankan musician M.I.A. reckoned Kanye West's impact on Jay-Z's success is understated.

The artist recently sat down for an appearance on The PBD Podcast, where she discussed the bond between the two rappers and her own encounters with them. She claimed that while Jay-Z is undeniably influential as a record label owner, it was Ye's creative energy that helped make their partnership thrive:

“I'd like to talk about Kanye more because I think he was very important to the rise of Jay-Z. He added the creativity to that whole thing,” she said. “I don’t think they give him enough respect and dues. Yes, Jay-Z was more of a businessman. 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.”

M.I.A. accuses Jay-Z of suggesting that she get plastic surgery: Read more

During the rest of the segment, M.I.A. also discussed their collaboration with Watch The Throne, remarking that only "one person was gonna get the throne." She also reflected on their varied paths to success, as well as Jay-Z's support of Barack Obama and Kanye's of President Trump.

M.I.A. first signed with Jay-Z and Roc Nation back in 2012, though she quit the label a little over a year later. She recently made bombshell accusations against the rapper, alleging that he urged her to get plastic surgery after she signed to the record label:

“Even when I met Jay-Z and I signed to Roc Nation, the first thing he told me to do is get plastic surgery,” M.I.A. 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.”

She added at the time:

“If I was insecure, I would have done that a hundred times over. I’m totally fine with the fact that I am [50], because guess what? 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.”

As for Jay-Z and Kanye West's relationship, while they may have been friends in the past, the latter has been blasting his former friend, his wife Beyonce, and their twin children on X of late.

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