London rapper M.I.A. has hit out at music channel MTV after the company played a heavily censored version of her new video Paper Planes.
The British-born Sri Lankan, whose real name is Maya Arulpragasam, was angry after they changed the sound of her vocals and removed the sounds of gunshots from the song.The singer wrote about the incident on her Myspace page on Sunday. She said: "I made the Paper Planes video. I made it how they wanted.No violence. Ambiguous. MTV-friendly. Now today, I check YouTube and see the leaked MTV Paper Planes video up for the first time. I clicked on it and out comes this f**ked up mess with double-tracked bulls**t mess. Who the f**k is doing this to me?"The video was sabotaged for whatever reason and I'm disappointed that MTV has had such a major role in this. I did fight for the sound, because putting meanings in your videos, in my opinion, is a dying art. I can film myself anywhere, anytime and let you know the truth, but the song is what I wanted to preserve in this case."M.I.A. also had a rant about US TV programme the Late Show With David Letterman. It approved her version of the tune during a sound check, but aired a different version when she performed it live in September this year.She added: "I was able to sound check for that show and they let me sound check fine, then on the actual taping my sound was sooo (sic) different from what I'd agreed."As soon as I opened my mouth, the difference blew me away. I felt I was getting bullied on national television, and I couldn't even reach out to my labels or my management to help, since they are new to what happens to an artist like me in mainstream American culture."