M.I.A Gets Booed on Stage at Kid Cudi Concert for Yelling 'Disgusting' Statement on Immigration

Once hailed as the future of music, M.I.A has officially become the artist most committed to torching her own legacy, and her latest stunt at a Kid Cudi show in Dallas might be her most spectacular act of self-sabotage yet.

via: Consequence of Sound

Over the weekend, M.I.A. drew massive boos during her opening set in Dallas on Kid Cudi’s “The Rebel Ragers Tour” after claiming she was “canceled” after becoming a Republican and making controversial remarks about potential “illegal” immigrants in the audience.

According to two separate reddit posts about the May 2nd show at Dos Equis Pavilion, the “Paper Planes” singer first commented about the backlash to her being a Republican. Though M.I.A. is likely unable to participate in US elections as a UK citizen, she followed Robert Kennedy Jr.’s lead in 2024 in endorsing Trump.

Here's what one Redditor had to say: On the way home right now from the kid cudi show in dallas. Big boi and sleepy brown were phenomenal openers. Once MIA came on, there was a little hype but not as much as Big Boi.

At one point in her performance, MIA starts talking to the crowd, and said “ ive been canceled for many reasons, I never thought i would be cancelled for being a brown republican voter. This dumb comment completely killed the vibe and she started getting boos, so then iirc, she said it would be illegal for her not to play a certain song, then follows with “theres probably a couple of them in the crowd.” She started getting booed even harder, so she started just saying shit to try win the crowd back over. “Im illegal too… half of my crew couldn’t make it here today because they couldn’t get their visas”

Once she got done rambling, the music was noticeably much louder and i COULD be wrong, but im pretty positive that she was piping in fake crowd noises you could tell it was an audio rather than authentic cheers because you can almost hear static coming with the noise. Anyways, screw her.

She had to play paper planes quickly to close out her set. She played like 4 songs and called it haha

When the boos became even louder, she tried to win the crowd back by saying, “I’m illegal — half of my team aren’t here because they couldn’t get their visa.”

Multiple attendees claimed M.I.A. appeared to then pipe in fake cheers following the rant.

Best known for the 2007 hit “Paper Planes,” when she sings, “If you catch me at the border, I got visas in my name,” M.I.A. previously flirted with the anti-vax movement in 2020 and launched a clothing line meant to block 5G waves in 2024 on Alex Jones’ Infowars.

She is certainly an odd choice to open for Kid Cudi, who previously told Esquire that he “totally disagree[s]” with his mentor Kanye West’s pro-Trump stance.

The next stop on Cudi’s tour is on Tuesday, May 5th in Birmingham, Alabama. Get tickets here, though you may want to time your arrival for other special guests including Big Boi and A-Trak instead.