MIA calls out Kid Cudi for kicking her off tour: “Crazy”
MIA has opened up about an on-stage incident in May that saw her booted off Kid Cudi‘s North American tour due to controversial comments about potential “illegal” immigrants in the audience of his shows.
The British-Sri Lankan rapper appeared in the support act slot for Kid Cudi’s show in Dallas on May 2nd. In videos circulated on social media, she could be heard saying, “I’ve been canceled for many reasons. I never thought I would be canceled for being a brown Republican voter.”
As a result, Cudi released a statement on his Instagram announcing that he was dropping the singer from the ongoing Rebel Ragers Tour.
In response, MIA filed a lawsuit against the ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ star for $2.8million, claiming that he knew her reputation and political stance before inviting her on the tour. The filing also revealed that MIA was allegedly told that she could say whatever she wanted on stage.
Now, appearing on The New York Times’ Popcast, the singer opened up about the incident, claiming that Cudi never spoke to her about the decision. Instead, she found out through her son, who read Cudi’s online statement.
She began, “He didn’t even speak to me about it. He didn’t call my management, he didn’t call me, he didn’t talk to the crew, and I even made an effort to go and talk to him, and he didn’t see me.”
She continued, “Yeah, it was kind of crazy. My son is like, ‘Hey, I heard you’re not on the tour.’”
The 50-year-old added, “That’s how I found out, from a different state, and my son called me from school. I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And then he sent me the post.”
MIA then turned her attention toward the false narratives perpetuated by the media, adding, “That’s not what’s going on. 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.”
She went on, “The narrative is that it is a Brown woman who is an immigrant and no matter what Americans think about that, they could never remove that.”
In Cudi’s original statement, he revealed that he had been “flooded with messages from fans that were upset by her rants”, which he said was “very disappointing and I won’t have someone on my tour making offensive remarks that upsets my fanbase”.
In a post refuting the narrative at the time, MIA, who did endorse Donald Trump in 2024, clarified that she can’t vote in the US due to being a British citizen, and distanced herself from the administration, writing, “Americans supporting either side denying they are both owned by Israel is a whole convo we can’t seem to get to”.
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