M.I.A. tweets her displeasure at New York Times profile

As her videos and inflammatory lyrics attest, the London rapper known as M.I.A. is not one to shy away from conflict.

While she normally reserves her most pointed jabs for Sri Lankan politics, the multi-culti hip-hop artist is taking aim at a different target today: journalist Lynn Hirschberg, who wrote a cover profile of her for an upcoming issue of the New York Times magazine.

Hirschberg's lengthy article features a scene in which the rebellious Paper Planes singer munches on truffle-flavoured French fries at the Beverly Wilshire hotel while saying, "I don't see how you can shut up and just enjoy success when other people who don't have the fame or the luxury to rent security guards are suffering. What the hell do they do? They just die."

The article also pokes holes in some of M.I.A.'s political views, quoting Ahilan Kadirgamar at Sri Lanka Democracy Forum, who takes issue with her provocative comments about the ongoing fighting between the Tamils and the Sinhalese in her ancestral country. M.I.A. has openly sided with the militant Tamil Tigers. Says Kadirgamar, "It was a brutal war, and M.I.A. had a role in putting the Tigers on the map. She doesn't seem to know the complexity of what these groups do."

Hirschberg goes on to paint M.I.A. as an artist with a knack for creative self-invention to rival Madonna, but M.I.A. was clearly unimpressed. Earlier today, she tweeted Hirschberg's phone number, along with an all-caps message (always a bad sign) saying, "Call me if you wanna talk to me about the NYT truth issue."
In response to the hubbub, Hirschberg was admirably cool, telling Britain's The Observer, "It's a fairly unethical thing to do, but I don't think it's surprising....She's a provocateur, and provocateurs want to be provocative."

M.I.A. has responded with yet another tweet, promising to make an "unedited" version of the interview available on Memorial Day weekend.

Whose side are you on in this recent tweet war? Does Hirschberg's article change your opinions about M.I.A.'s music or politics?