(AllHipHop News) Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam’s career never seemed to be the same after she was flayed in the press following her middle-finger salute during the 2012 Superbowl halftime show. Besides the public backlash, the British recording artist professionally known as M.I.A. was also hit with a $16.6 million lawsuit from the NFL.
The media-driven controversy is covered in the Matangi/Maya/M.I.A documentary. Hulk Magazine spoke to M.I.A. about the film, and she claimed Jay-Z advised her to agree to an unfavorable deal with the league.
“If you’re talking about racism and sexism, that moment in my life showed the cracks in everyone I knew. I was at Roc Nation at the time and Jay Z was managing me,” said Arulpragasam. “The lawsuit was so ridiculous, it proposed that they would keep one hundred percent of my earnings for the rest of my life if I ever earned more than 2 million dollars. Jay Z was, like, ‘you should sign that sh-t’ and I was, like, ‘no.’”
M.I.A.’s biggest domestic hit was 2008’s “Paper Planes” which was sampled for the rap track “Swagga Like Us” by Jay-Z, T.I., Kanye West, and Lil Wayne. AIM, released in 2016, was her last studio album.