Madonna is taking her role as a director seriously. We're not just talking about 'W.E.,' the period piece romance she just lensed. In her chat with ABC, she shared a clip from the studio, where she laid down vocals with often controversial rapper M.I.A. for a track called 'Birthday Song.'

This is another collab with M.I.A., who sings on 'Give Me All Your Luvin,' which also features Nicki Minaj, who is, well, MIA in this clip! (Sorry, we had to!) Here, Madge offers plenty of direction and doles out suggestions to M.I.A. while she cuts her vocals and makes her contributions.

In the clip, Madge, wearing thick and nerdy black glasses, is speaking from behind the board in the control room. She says, "Do more freestyle," to which M.I.A. replies, "I like you making me sing." Madge replies, "It's you, only singing. That's cool. That's new."

The normally inflammatory M.I.A. is giggling a bunch in this clip and looks like she is having fun. Madge even comments on this, saying, "I know it's not cool to be happy. It's cool to be uncool."

We wonder if Madge's teenage daughter Lourdes shares that sentiment about her famous mom. But seriously, Madonna couldn't be uncool no matter how hard she tried. As if!

This studio footage does plant a little seed of curiosity for us. A few years back, M.I.A. dissed Lady Gaga as an Upper East Side child of privilege after Oprah Winfrey endorsed her and her musical journey. M.I.A. told Time Out that "[Lady Gaga's] journey isn't that difficult: to go from the f---ing Upper East Side to a f---ing performing arts school and on to a stage at the museum of f---ing wherever. That journey's about four miles."

Given Madge's recent swipes at Gaga, we can't help but wonder if the topic of Gaga came up in conversation, passing or otherwise.

Watch Madonna in the Studio with M.I.A.

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