M.I.A. Dropped from AfroPunk London Festival

Jul 19, 2016 Marisa Ray

M.I.A. is officially dropped as AfroPunk London’s headliner. The annual music festival will have its first annual festival in London this year. It will take place in three major cities London, Brooklyn, and Paris.

In April M.I.A. made comments on the Black Lives Matter movement in an interview with London’s Evening Standard that received negative attention.

"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 '90s, or Public Enemy in the '80s.”

"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," she said. "And you cannot ask it on a song that's on Apple, you cannot ask it on an American TV program, you cannot create that tag on Twitter, Michelle Obama is not going to hump you back."

After much consideration AfroPunk Festival released an official statement to their website and social media accounts.

"We are excited and honored to do our first Afropunk Festival in London and want to do it right. After discussing the situation with the artist and the community, a decision was agreed upon by all involved that M.I.A will no longer headline Afropunk London.”

M.I.A’s rep has yet to make any comments on the matter.

The annual festival will take place in London the weekend of September 24 with SZA and World Sound Power to headline.

The Brooklyn Festival will take place for it’s twelfth year August 27-28 at Brooklyn’s Commodore Barry Park (City Park).

The festival is a celebration of multicultural arts and awareness that will feature major hip-hop artists, food trucks, and an art market. The Brooklyn Festival will headline with Ice Cube, Tyler the Creator, and Earl Sweatshirt.