Out With Diplo (via Jessica) x Wingstop & No Crown in Tribeca

There is no need to bring up M.I.A. to Wesley Pentz, aka Diplo, the DJ-producer-ex-boyfriend who was instrumental in her success. Pentz will do it on his own. At first it’s complimentary in a conversation about Coachella. “I saw M.I.A. play there two years ago and it was probably one of the most amazing shows I ever saw,” he says. But then: “Last year she played, too, and it was kind of lame.” Ask him if they’re friends and the answer is, “No, no, no. Not anymore. No one in my camp talks to her anymore. She’s kind of really gone crazy.”

It’s been three years since “Paper Planes,” the song from M.I.A.’s second album “Kala,” hit critical mass. You couldn’t escape it after it was used in the trailer for “Pineapple Express” and “Slumdog Millionaire,” and it’s arguably the biggest hit for both M.I.A. and Pentz, who wrote and produced the track. They had a contentious breakup, personally and professionally, and Pentz still has plenty to say about her. “She got famous off ‘Paper Planes,’ ” he says. “She had already thrown in the towel when that record came out. Before that, she was like, ‘I’m retiring. I’m going to marry this guy, f—k it.’ Then ‘Paper Planes’ blew up and she was like, ‘Oh sh-t. I gotta take advantage of this. I’m actually an artist now.” Her follow-up album, which Pentz had little to do with, was not the success everyone was expecting. Then there was Lynn Hirschberg’s scathing New York Times truffle French fry story, which depicted M.I.A., whose lyrics are filled with references to Sri Lankan terrorists, as a political poseur living in a Brentwood, Calif., mansion. Pentz’s quotes validated Hirschberg’s thesis. He is still not above saying I told you so.

“Maya left herself open for attacks,” he says. “She’s not an easy artist to criticize because she’s very left-leaning, she’s progressive, she’s a woman. She’s good in a lot of aspects, but when it comes to die-hard, facts-on-the-ground politics, she’s at zero. She’s nothing. I told her at the beginning of the third record, like, do not bring politics into this. Obama’s the president, for one. You just can’t glamorize terrorism, it’s not cool.…You can’t hide behind that sh-t.

But she totally did. She didn’t have a plan B. I told her from the beginning, it’s not (Read the rest here) (via WWD)

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