Grace Jones released her autobiography I'll Never Write My Memoirs this week. And she certainly hasn't disappointed.
In it she throws shade at modern artists like Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, and Kanye West, who she calls her "pupils".
Time Out this week exclusively published an extract from the book in which Jones gives her incredibly blunt opinion on artists that have come after her:
Trends come along and people say, 'Follow that trend'. There's a lot of that around at the moment: 'Be like Sasha Fierce. Be like Miley Cyrus. Be like Rihanna. Be like Lady Gaga. Be like Rita Ora and Sia. Be like Madonna.' I cannot be like them – except to the extent that they are already being like me.
I have been so copied by those people who have made fortunes that people assume I am that rich. But I did things for the excitement, the dare, the fact that it was new, not for the money, and too many times I was the first, not the beneficiary.
And she makes specific reference to Rihanna "copying" her body paint idea in the "Umbrella" video:
Rihanna… She does the body-painting thing I did with Keith Haring, but where he painted directly on my body, she wears a painted bodysuit. That's the difference. Mine is on skin; she puts a barrier between the paint and her skin. I don't even know if she knows that what she's doing comes from me, but I bet you the people styling her know. They know the history.
In the memoir Jones also warns other artists that they won't last long in the industry, saying "the problem with the Dorises and the Nicki Minajes and Mileys is that they reach their goal very quickly".
She adds: "If you haven't got a long-term plan, then you are merely a passing phase, the latest trend, yesterday's event... You are not off the beaten track, pushing through the thorny undergrowth, finding treasure no one has come across before. You are in the middle of the road."
In the last section of the book Jones mentions an anonymous artist she dubs "Doris" who she says has tried to record with her. And she also lists the artists she believes are following her lead.
What is teaching but passing on your knowledge to those who are at the beginning? Some people are born with that gift. With me, the teaching side morphed into the performing side. It's in there. And these are my pupils – Gaga, Madonna, Annie Lennox, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Miley, Kanye West, FKA Twigs and... Doris.
Grace Jones' autobiography I'll Never Write My Memoirs will be released on 24 September.
You can read the full excerpt on TimeOut here.