At this point, M.I.A.‘s problems with record labels are pretty well documented. First, the folks at Interscope delayed the release of her Matangi album because it was “too positive,” and then, after months of tinkering, she was apparently so frustrated that she decided to premiere the album’s first single, “Bring The Noize,” herself.
Now, she’s at war with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation (which began operating as part of the Universal Music Group — the corportation that also owns Interscope — earlier this year) over a teaser clip for a Matangi documentary that began making the rounds this weekend and was quickly pulled by the Roc citing copyright infringement.
According to the doc’s director, Steve Loveridge, the teaser was made in 2012 “to show Interscope what the film would feel like.” Though after months of delays, Loveridge decided to force the label’s hand, posting the clip on his blog and instructing M.I.A. fans to “reblog the sh–out of this and maybe they’ll wake up.”
Of course, those fans did as they were told, and within hours, Loveridge was hit with a copyright claim from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which caused the Matangi clip to be removed from YouTube. Out of frustration, the director then posted an email from a Roc Nation employee, who claimed that, despite the delays, the label was still planning on releasing the film in time for the album’s promotional cycle and M.I.A.’s festival appearances, then added:
“The timing of this leak is not good, as it screws with everything we’ve been working on setting up Matangi … so I think we’ll pull [the teaser clip] down ASAP to then set it up properly and not just have to go for damage control.”
To which Loveridge replied: “I really couldn’t give a flying f—. Count me out. Would rather die than work on this.”
Meanwhile, as all this was happening, M.I.A. caught wind of the situation, and took to her Twitter account to proclaim she’d been “blacklisted” and was considering taking her documentary to Kickstarter to get it finished.
im gonna need @kickstarter and my fans to help make this exsist , ive been black listed through normal channels !!!!!!!
— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) July 7, 2013
And despite her label’s efforts to scrub the teaser clip from the Internet, M.I.A. then began retweeting fans who were spreading links, and then defiantly thanked them for their support, adding “Throw ur middle finger Mudra up.”
A spokesperson for UMG did not respond to MTV News’ request for comment about the Matangi documentary. But in a separate email, the rep did say that M.I.A.’s long delayed album would be released in “fall.”
