M.I.A.: You mean why did I start talking about being refugees?

AHMED: No, I’m not saying why, I’m saying how did your family react?

M.I.A.: I don’t know how it went.

AHMED: Were your family pissed that you were talking about them, talking about your upbringing, talking about your dad? You named your albums after your parents. Asian families can be a bit like, yo, dirty laundry, what are you doing?

M.I.A.: Naming a random album that’s full of club music after your mom is not necessarily talking about my mom.

AHMED: No, sure, but in your lyrics and in interviews you did, innit?

M.I.A.: Not in my lyrics. I didn’t talk about it in my lyrics but I talked about it in my interviews because people were like, “Oh, are you authentic?” And at that time I was like, what the fuck is authentic? And they were like, “Are you a gangsta because you from the hood?” And I was like, I don’t know what constitutes being a thug because yes, I have all of the genetic makeup to become one, in where I come from or how I’m living but it’s more complicated than that. Then I had to explain a bit. But because I didn’t really know my dad I couldn’t talk about him, because if I grew up with my dad—

AHMED: Then you’d feel weird exposing him in a way.

M.I.A.: Yeah, but I didn’t know about him and I felt that that was okay because I knew as much as anyone else knew. In fact, most of the information I got about my dad was already what existed out in the ether. Like people would come up to me and be like, “Did you know your dad did this?” And that’s what I knew. So it was public information.

AHMED: And was your mom pissed about it, or were your siblings like, “Maya, why are you talking about our family? Why are you talking about our dad?”

M.I.A.: Yes. In the beginning they were like, “Oh my God, this is so embarrassing. Why are you saying that we are poor?” And I’m like, “’Cause you are.” And then they’re like, “Yeah, but that’s not the deal. We don’t want to talk about that.”

AHMED: Part of being an artist is about really embracing who you are and talking about your own experience and your own life but that can alienate the people in your life. Is that something you’re still dealing with?

M.I.A.: Yes, what we went through wasn’t our choice but it was something you go through. To some extent you have to be self-sacrificing in order to shed light on the complications, which now is needed even more than ever. My mom and dad are probably over it.