M.I.A. believes she is responsible for Diplo's success.

The 'Paper Planes' hitmaker has shot down rumours her former flame carved out her music career for her and is adamant she's the one that approached him all those years ago.

Taking to her social networking sites, she said: ''I discovered diplo... I found out on a flyer he was djing and spent 16 pounds and bought my own way into fabric club in London. No one put me on the list! Nobody paid for it! I approached him and gave him my record! There was no label no A N R (artists and repertoire) no channels. a handful of people believed in me, then when I got a deal, they turned on me.

''This was why i forged my own path and style and genre. I didn't want anyone to say they made me! To this day so many people have made careers off me and the same people distort history destroy the story because of my politics, which he (Diplo) played a part in cementing.''

The 42-year-old rapper went on to explain that things between her and her ex were so fractured after they split that he actually had a dartboard with her face on it as part of his tour rider.

She has also accused the producer - who she dated until 2008 - of losing her fans after he criticised her in a newspaper article.

She explained: ''No one came to my shows during this time because of that article and racist memes mad decent were spreading through hipsters.

''I let him cash in on the sound because I had no choice. I felt it was important to defend freedom of speech.''

She added: ''It's important you don't see me as a Iil thing diplo discovered because I'm a brown woman, and this is the first story of a brown female musician who smashed it for the first time. That didn't happen because I accidentally walked passed diplo. (sic)''