British rapper M.I.A has been dropped from Afropunk festival in London following comments she made about the Black Lives Matter movement.
In an interview with ES Magazine in April, M.I.A said: "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.
'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.”='
But following the backlash, the rapper clarified on Twitter:
Rumours of the rapper’s exclusion from her upcoming headliner slot came from her own Twitter account when she posted:
And the official announcement has now come. Afropunk festival organisers announced the decision to drop M.I.A in a statement that read: '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.
'This community is something we are incredibly proud of, and this community will always be a priority for us.'
A new headliner for the festival is likely to be announced on Tuesday.