M.I.A. has responded to claims that she's a MAGA artist after Kid Cudi removed her from his Rebel Ragers tour.
In an interview with The New York Times’ Popcast podcast, the singer was asked about her decision to discuss illegal immigration on stage at her last Cudi show — a moment that led many fans to think that she was affiliated with MAGA.
"That's not what's going on," she answered. "That is what the media wrote as what's going on. That was the perception that was generated and fanned and algorithmized to cement a narrative."
"Because the narrative is that there is a brown woman who is an immigrant, and no matter what Americans think about that, they can never remove that, and that is not an identity given to me by Americans, and they don't have the right to take it away."
Her response comes after she previously showed her support for Donald Trump, who spearheaded the right-wing populist political movement, MAGA. In August 2024, months before the US presidential election, the "Paper Planes" singer endorsed Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on X.
"Trump is going to ride America through the most challenging 4 years coming pulling out weed, and RFK will inherit America when God is ready to replant and rebuild it righteously," she wrote.
Footage from M.I.A.’s May 5 Rebel Ragers Tour stop showed her telling the audience she's a Republican. At another point, she pointed to several concert-goers and suggested that because they were "illegal," she couldn’t perform her song "Illygal."
She also discussed that moment on Popcast. "I think that Cudi fans didn't know my songs," she told the hosts. "When I got to 'Illygal,' which is my favorite song, by the way … I was like, 'Oh, we can't do that, but we can do 'Tequila.' And then I played 'Tequila.' But I think people thought we can't do 'Illygal' and I said, 'Some of you might be, but the whole song's core is saying, 'I'm illegal.''"
After making those comments, Kid Cudi kicked M.I.A. off the tour.
"After the last couple shows, I’ve been flooded with messages from fans that were upset by her rants," he wrote on Instagram. "This, to me, is very disappointing and I won’t have someone on my tour making offensive remarks that upsets my fanbase. Thank you for understanding."
M.I.A. subsequently sued Cudi over her removal, which she alleged "was terminated to generate publicity for the tour, which has struggled with ticket sales… [Kid Cudi] has ridiculed and attempted to 'cancel' M.I.A. to market the tour and sell tickets."
