M.I.A. Strikes Back at <i>NY Times</i> Journalist with Diss Track

BY Josiah HughesPublished May 31, 2010

Last week, M.I.A. started a beef with New York Times journalist Lynn Hirschberg after the writer published an 8,000-word profile contrasting the star's revolutionary politics with her upper-class lifestyle. The article spurred M.I.A. to post Hirschberg's cell number on her Twitter account in a childish revenge prank. Then, she promised an "unedited" version of the interview to be posted on her website.

Hardly unedited, M.I.A. has now posted two incredibly brief snippets of her interview with Hirschberg. The first responds to a brief mention that M.I.A. had been eating a truffle-flavoured french fry during their interview. Brace yourselves for a major controversy: Hirschberg ordered the fries. The audio snippet proves that the truffle-flavoured fries were in fact her idea.

The second audio snippet features M.I.A. discussing how she never performed at the Grammys or the Oscars to achieve more fame or for any sort of accolades, but to raise awareness about the violence in Sri Lanka, to which Hirschberg replied, "Oh yeah, I understand."

Way to lift the veil on some pretty heavy shit there, Maya.

The plot thickens as M.I.A. also took the time to drop a diss track on Hirschberg. The track is called "I'm a Singer" and includes lines like "Why the hell would a journalist be thick as shit." Also, it kind of sucks.

Both audio snippets and "I'm a Singer" can be streamed at the N.E.E.T. Recordings website here. As much as we love beef, we're guessing this will be the last of M.I.A. vs. Hirschberg, as the latter has probably long moved on from all of this.

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