Kid Cudi has fired M.I.A. as an opening act on his Rebel Ragers tour following backlash over her onstage comments in Dallas, where she said she “can’t do illegal” and appeared to accuse audience members of being in the country illegally.
The controversy first gained steam on Reddit where concertgoers expressed their concerns about her comments at Saturday’s show, including that she reportedly claimed she was canceled for being a brown Republican voter, prompting boos from the audience. Although she is not a U.S. citizen, she endorsed Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
In one video, she says she “can’t do illegal, though some of you could be in the audience,” drawing audible gasps.
In a statement Monday, Kid Cudi announced that M.I.A. was no longer with the tour and noted that he had previously had his management tell her team that he “didn’t want anything offensive” in his shows and that he was assured this message was understood.
“After the last couple shows, I’ve been flooded with messages from fans that were upset by her rants,” he wrote in a statement on Instagram. “This, to me, is very disappointing and I won’t have someone on my tour making offensive remarks that upsets my fanbase.”
The rant came as she introduced her song “ILLYGIRL,” which has lyrics that say “I’m illegal, f— your law.” In another video, she can be heard saying, “I’m illegal, half my team are not here because they didn’t get the visa,” before instructing the audience not to listen to “what the bots say on the internet.”
After Cudi’s announcement about her being removed from the tour, she responded in an all-caps message on X, writing, “I WROTE BORDERS AND ILLYGAL AND PAPER PLANES BEFORE YOU THOUGHT IMMIGRANT RIGHTS WERE COOL. I’VE HAD [THESE] BATTLES BY MYSELF WITHOUT THE HELP OF MILLIONS OF FANS BACKING ME.”
M.I.A., whose real name is Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, is a British-born rapper with Sri Lankan parents. She spent her early childhood in Sri Lanka before her family returned to London as refugees during the country’s civil war.
She is best known for her 2008 smash hit “Paper Planes,” which includes the lyrics “If you catch me at the border I got visas in my name.” Several of her songs deal with themes of immigration, politics and war.
In 2022, she announced her conversion to born-again Christian, which inspired her recently released album M.I.7, featuring heavy Christian themes.
In her X statement on Monday, she accused people of gaslighting her song lyrics, noting that “IS THE WORK OF SATAN.” She also made comments about Jesus being an immigrant and a rebel and said he returned to lead the world to fight injustice. She ended the post with a call for everyone to listen to M.I.7.
Kudi’s 33-show Rebel Ragers tour kicked off March 28 with M.I.A. and Big Boi billed as the opening acts. On Monday, he also announced that his Tuesday show in Birmingham, Ala., was canceled due to low ticket sales. The tour is set to continue with Big Boi as an opener and A-Trak, Me N Ü and Dot Da Genius slated to open at certain shows.