M.I.A. Kicked Off Kid Cudi Tour Over Onstage Political Rants

M.I.A.'s descent into right-wing absurdity is nothing new. Back in 2022, she compared Alex Jones' lies about the Sandy Hook mass shooting to "every celebrity pushing vaccines." In 2024, she went on the far-right conspiracy theorist's show to launch apparel that supposedly blocks 5G signals. Last month, she dropped her "gospel" album M.I.7 and introduced a new clothing line, this one designed to block 10G signals. Now, after some ill-received stage banter at a Kid Cudi show in Dallas, she's gotten herself kicked off of a big summer tour.

For the past week, M.I.A. has been opening for Kid Cudi on his Rebel Ragers Tour; the extremely 2010 lineup also features acts like Big Boi and A-Trak. On Saturday night, the tour came to Dallas' Dos Equis Pavilion. According to a couple of posts on Kid Cudi's subreddit, M.I.A. told the crowd, "I’ve been canceled for many reasons. I never thought I would be canceled for being a brown Republican voter." The crowd reportedly booed her.

Right now, there's no video of that moment online, but there is video of another moment from M.I.A.'s set. She briefly teased a song apparently called "Illegal," and then she told the crowd, "Can't do 'Illegal.' Because some of you could be in the audience." When the crowd booed that line, which I guess was supposed to be a joke, she said, "All right, I'm illegal. Half of my team are not here because they didn't get the visa, OK? I want you to know that. All right? So don't listen to what the bots say on the internet, OK?"

In videos from the Dallas show, it looks like M.I.A. is wearing her anti-10G poncho. One of the Redditors who posted about her appearance said that she cut her performance short, playing "Paper Planes" and then leaving. They also theorize that someone piped in fake cheers for her.

M.I.A. reportedly also made ill-received comments at Austin’s Germania Insurance Ampitheater the night prior. “They cut her mic off and literally pulled her off the stage,” one attendee posted in Stereogum’s Instagram comments. “It was so embarrassing, 90% Hispanic crowd and she goes and asks "who here knows about borders!? I know yall do!" And then plays images of the boxer behind her.”

On his Instagram Story this afternoon, Kid Cudi wrote that M.I.A. is "no longer on this tour" and said that he made it clear to her that he didn't want "anything offensive at my shows." Here's what he wrote:

TOUR UPDATE

M.I.A is no longer on this tour. I told my management to send a notice to her team before we started tour that I didnt want anything offensive at my shows, cuz I already knew what time it was, and I was assured things were understood. After the last couple shows, I've been flooded with messages from fans that were upset by her rants. This, to me, is very disappointing and I wont have someone on my tour making offensive remarks that upsets my fanbase. Thank you for understanding.

Rager

Here's some video of that "illegal" moment in Dallas.