M.I.A. blames Super Bowl fall-out and 'babydaddy' drama for 2013 album flop

Outspoken rapper M.I.A. has accused her record label bosses of "burying" her last album following the controversy surrounding her Super Bowl appearance with Madonna in 2012.

The Paper Planes hitmaker's 2013 release Matangi was a flop and now she's blaming bad press and her skirmish with the National Football League over a naughty gesture during her Super Bowl performance for the album's failure.

NFL bosses were so upset with M.I.A.'s middle finger salute straight to camera during the live show they took legal action against her and she battled them via social media.

Now, in a new Twitter burst, she claims the Super Bowl storm affected the success of her 2013 album, which she released on her own record label, NEET, via a deal with Interscope.

"There were lots of elephants in the room," she says. "Everyone puts it down to, 'Yeah well, you should have played the game'. But the whole meaning of Matangi was not that."

M.I.A. claims her "babydaddy battle" and "my ex-manager becoming my label head" also contributed to the album's failure.

The rapper split from environmentalist and musician Benjamin Bronfman, the father of her son Ikhyd, in 2012.

She continues to ruffle feathers at her record label, after going public with her bid to release her new track Bird Song over the weekend (13Aug16).

She tweeted: "@Interscope can you clear bird song @diplo version so it can be released this Friday!" and later added: "Interscope wont clear the diplo bird song so it can't can't be released... please sort it out."

An alternate version of the song was released last week (ends12Aug16).

The track features on what M.I.A. insists will be her last studio album, AIM.