M.I.A. has claimed in a new interview that today’s mainstream music “sounds like what me and Kanye West used to make” a decade ago.

The London artist made the claim in a new interview with actor and musician Riz Ahmed for a feature in Interview magazine, with the two meeting in New York City for the interview as M.I.A. promoted her upcoming new documentary, Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.

After saying that she felt like she “trail-blazed a lot, business-wise” up to and around the time of the success of her single ‘Paper Planes’ in 2008, Ahmed then asked her to elaborate on that claim.


“If you listen to mainstream music now, every beat sounds like what me and [Kanye] West used to make back then,” M.I.A. said in response.

“I came digitally to an industry that started from selling cassette tapes, so when they signed me, they were like, “Okay, this girl is the future of music,'” she later added about her first experiences with the label Interscope.

Matangi/Maya/M.I.A is set to be released in the summer.

Last month, M.I.A. revealed that Jay-Z encouraged her to sign a “ridiculous” agreement with the NFL following her controversial appearance at the Super Bowl Half-Time Show in 2012.