M.I.A will be missing in action at this year’s Afropunk Festival.
The eclectic rapper had been tapped to serve as a headliner at the London edition of the Urban music celebration.
However, after feeling the furore of members of the Black communication following her controversial comments about the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the Brit-bred talent has decided to vacate her spot on the bill.
Details below…
As reported, the 38-year-old was none-too-endorsing of the campaign, which aims simply to highlight the injustices faced by the Black community.
Speaking to the Evening Standard, she lambasted figures such as Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar for supporting the drive. She said at the time:
“It’s not a new thing to me – it’s what Lauryn Hill was saying in the 1990s, or Public Enemy in the 1980s. Is Beyoncé or Kendrick Lamar going to say Muslim Lives Matter? Or Syrian Lives Matter? Or this kid in Pakistan matters? That’s a more interesting question.
And you cannot ask it on a song that’s on Apple, you cannot ask it on an American TV programme, you cannot create a tag on Twitter, Michelle Obama isn’t going to hump you back.”
Ever since, fans of both artists as well independent supporters of BLM have not let go of her wig.
So much so that their threats of boycotting the festival have seen her bow out of performing. She took to Twitter to make the announcement and sarcastically added:
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Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but it would profit acts to understand that there are consequences attached to broadcasting them. Especially when illogical like the views expressed by M.I.A.
We stand by our stance that she was all sorts of wrong for trying to weigh-up injustice and play down the plight of Black people. The reality is that she is not Black, hence will never be able to articulate or assess the Black experience firsthand because she doesn’t walk in those shoes. That doesn’t mean that Black hardship is more important than struggles she identifies with. But it also doesn’t mean it’s any less relevant either.
Her arguing otherwise is justification enough for her to be deleted from the line-up.
Good riddance.