The world has become a very sensitive place over the last couple years, with issues of political correctness and appropriateness in speech being called into question almost every day. M.I.A has discovered this first hand as she has just been removed as a headliner at Afropunk Music Festival’s inaugural London edition.
In April, M.I.A was quoted in an interview with the Evening Standard as saying, “It’s interesting that in America the problem you’re allowed to talk about is Black Lives Matter.”
“It’s not a new thing to me — it’s what Lauryn Hill was saying in the 1990s, or Public Enemy in the 1980s,” she said. “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.” 
A couple months later, M.I.A tweeted the below:
https://twitter.com/MIAuniverse/status/744964018239078400
At the time, Afropunk issued a statement saying that M.I.A was still involved, but it seems that the festival organizers, M.I.A’s team and M.I.A herself have all come to an agreement that she will not be headlining this year’s festival. This comes immediately following the release of her new single, “Go Off,” a collab with Skrillex that you can listen to here.
A new headliner will be announced Tuesday, July 19.
via NY Daily News
