M.I.A.'s candid interview style is the gift that keeps on giving. The adoptive Angelena (who, as the NYT revealed, slums it in Silverlake but lives in tony Santa Monica) gives amazing quote, as she proved once again this week with a juicy Q&A for Time-Out London:

On what she thought her NYT Magazine cover story was going to accomplish: “'I thought my cover was gonna be a part of… America's campaign to soften the “them” and “us” thing. That's what I thought I was being used as a tool for. That's what I'm fucked off about: it felt like they were embracing the other and stabbing the other in the back at the same time.'” [M.I.A. = “the other”? What is she? A grad student?]

On the fucking truffle fries: “'I'd never heard of a fucking truffle fry before. When [Hirschberg] came to England, I took her to all these Muslim kebab shops on Edgware Road – some Somalian place or a Turkish place in east London – and all that got edited out.'”

On Pharrell Williams: “'He was just telling me off like crazy: “You can't just keep beating people up…” 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 fucking leader.”'”

On Puffy: “'Diddy was like, “Oh my fucking God, last time I saw you, you were so fat!” [M.I.A. was pregnant at the time.] He was like, “I never knew what you looked like because I never met you when you were skinny.” He was just like, “I love you, we need you.” And I was like, “That's so good to hear because Pharrell just told me I was shit.”'”

On Puffy's powers of persuasion: “Diddy went and found Pharrell and made him come to my table, apologise and kiss my hand and shit, which was awesome.'”

On Oprah dissing her: “Oprah seemed like she was giving me the cold shoulder. […] She was with Iman [Bowie]. Iman was always dancing with me, hugging and kissing me, but Oprah seemed really pissed off with me.”

On Lady Gaga's journey: “[Oprah] made this huge speech at the ball praising Lady Gaga and about how she [Lady Gaga] 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? Is it truly about the journey? Because [Lady Gaga's] journey isn't that difficult: to go from the fucking Upper East Side to a fucking performing arts school and on to a stage at the museum of fucking wherever. That journey's about four miles.'”

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