M.I.A. claims Jay-Z and Roc Nation tried to get her to sign a "slavery" contract with the NFL where the league took 100% of her earnings

Internationally acclaimed musician M.I.A. has made explosive claims regarding her dealings with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and the National Football League (NFL).

On January 15, 2025, during an Instagram live with American singer and songwriter Jaguar Wright, M.I.A., the British rapper whose real name is Mathangi Maya Arulpragasam MBE, claimed that Roc Nation and the NFL attempted to bind her to a slavery contract.

In her statement, M.I.A. alleged that the NFL sought to claim 100 percent of her earnings after she reached a certain milestone.

"I was fighting giants, and nobody f*cking came to help me. At that time, Jay-Z, Roc Nation was supposed to negotiate that. They wanted me to sign this thing, which was slavery. It was modern day slavery where the NFL takes 100% of my earnings, and that is slavery," Maya said.

M.I.A., a 49-year-old British-born Sri Lankan rapper, is globally renowned for her politically charged dance music.

Her music blends various elements, including alternative, dance, electronic, hip-hop, and world music, utilizing electronic instruments. Some of her most famous works include Time Traveller, Paper Planes, Borders, Come Around, and MATANGI.

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M.I.A. accuses Jay-Z and NFL of attempting to enforce the exploitative contract

Maya claimed that Roc Nation and NFL demanded 100% of her earnings as part of the contract, justifying it by suggesting that they intended to make her a billionaire, thereby ensuring their own billionaire status.

"And the only justifications of why he is more right than I am is, is because he says to people he goes into boardrooms and says to people, which I would never say. If he says it is important for me to be a billionaire, you know, because, that people needs to be billionaire," Maya said.

Furthermore, M.I.A. recounted a conversation with Jay-Z in which she questioned why he wanted her to become a billionaire.

"And why does he specifically, at that time, I had this conversation. With white money people when they go, you know, it's important for Jay-Z to become a billionaire and I go why, and next says because he wants to open a casino," Maya added.

This is not the first time Maya has accused Roc Nation and the NFL of coercing her into signing a contract she described as slavery.

In a 2018 interview with Huck Magazine, M.I.A. claimed that Roc Nation and the NFL proposed a contract stipulating that if she earned more than $2 million, she would have to relinquish 100% of her earnings to them, a contract she refused to sign.

"I was at Roc Nation at the time and Jay-Z was managing me. 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 shit' and I was, like, 'No,'" Maya said.

Additionally, on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, Maya took to her Instagram account to accuse Jay-Z's wife, Beyoncé, of manipulating the industry and society, claiming that their obsession with wealth has fueled a systemic machine that exploits collective efforts.

As of now, M.I.A. has not clarified what prompted her to make these accusations, and neither Jay-Z nor the NFL has responded to her claims.