M.I.A. on Kid Cudi Tour Removal: "He Never Met My Attempts to Talk"

M.I.A. was booted from Kid Cudi ‘s Rebel Ragers Tour in May. Weeks later, she filed a lawsuit against Cudi seeking more than $2.8 million.

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Kid Cudi Boots M.I.A. From His Tour After Her Political Rants: ‘I Won’t Have Someone on My Tour Making Offensive Remarks’

M.I.A. Responds to Being Removed From Kid Cudi’s Tour Over ‘Offensive Remarks’: ‘Do Not Gaslight My Words’

M.I.A. Sues Kid Cudi for $2.8M After He Fired Her From Rebel Rangers Tour: ‘He Knew Her Politics’

Now, the “Paper Planes” rapper is telling her side of the story, as she joined The New York Times’ Popcast for her first interview detailing what led to her dismissal from opening on the trek.

M.I.A. claimed she never even spoke to Cudi about being removed from the tour despite making attempts to communicate with the “Pursuit of Happiness” rapper. She said she actually found out about through her son, who saw Cudi’s statement announcing M.I.A. was gone.

“He didn’t even speak to me about it,” she began. “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. Yeah, it was kind of crazy. My son is like, ‘Hey, I heard you’re not on the tour.'”

M.I.A. continued: “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.”

In early May, M.I.A. made controversial statements during rants surrounding her political allegiances and illegal immigration during her performances. In fan captured videos, she could be heard being booed during her set at the Dallas show.

“I’ve been canceled for many reasons. I never thought I would be canceled for being a brown Republican voter,” she said, per Variety .

M.I.A. claimed during a set in a separate instance: “All right, I’m illegal. Half my team are not here because they didn’t get the visa. OK, I want you to know that. Don’t listen to what the bots say on the internet.”

Cudi released a statement on May 4 explaining that he’d heard enough feedback from his fans and was pulling the plug on having M.I.A. open on his tour. He also claimed that he had his team warn M.I.A.’s management before the start of the trek that he didn’t want anything controversial during her performances.

The Sri Lankan-British artist explained what she felt what wrong, as M.I.A. believed there was a miscommunication since Cudi fans weren’t familiar with her music. A viral clip centered around her talking about playing her 2010 song “Illygirl” seemed to light the fuse for controversy.

“I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t do that,'” she told Popcast when skipping over playing through “Illygirl.” “I was like, ‘But we can do ‘Teqkilla.’ I think people thought, ‘We can’t do ‘Illegals.” And I said, ‘Some of you might be [illegal].’

M.I.A. then blamed the media for running with an allegedly false narrative that she’s a Trump supporter and Republican voter.

“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 stated. “The narrative is that is a brown woman who is an immigrant and no matter what Americans think about that, they could never remove that.”

Billboard has reached out to Kid Cudi’s reps for comment.

M.I.A. filed her lawsuit against Kid Cudi on May 29 in Los Angeles federal court for what she believes was being unfairly removed from the Rebel Ragers Tour by Live Nation over political statements.

“M.I.A. was terminated to generate publicity for the tour, which has struggled with ticket sales,” her attorney, Howard King, said in a statement to Billboard at the time . “She was contractually allowed to say whatever she wanted on stage. M.I.A. now holds Kid Cudi accountable for his bad faith destruction of her contractual rights, business opportunities and reputation.”

With M.I.A. out of the picture, Cudi’s current opening acts include Chip The Ripper, Big Boi and A-Trak. Cudi’s Rebel Ragers Tour continues on Saturday (June 6) with a show in Bangor, Maine.

Watch M.I.A.’s interview with Popcast below:

_Originally reported by [Billboard](https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/m-i-a-kid-cudi-dropped-her-from-tour-no-meeting-1236265173/)._