Source: Pedro Gomes / Getty
Azealia Banks is at again with her public call outs. This time she has some words for music artist M.I.A, calling her “anti-Black.”
It all started when M.I.A vented on Instagram about her relationship with former producer and ex-boyfriend Diplo. She denied that Diplo (real name Thomas Wesley Pentz) is the reason for her success. “It’s important you don’t see me as a lil thing diplo discovered because I’m a brown woman,” she wrote. “and this is the first story of a brown female musician who smashed it for the first time. That didn’t happen because I accidentally walked passed diplo.”
When talking about her success M.I.A, who is of Sri Lankan Tamil descent, also said, “There was no label no A N R no channels. a handful of people believed in me , then when I got a deal , they turned on me. This was why i forged my own path and style and genre. I didn’t want anyone to say they made me!”
Azealia peeped M.I.A’s words and challenged the idea that she was completely original. See the rant below:
https://twitter.com/XoCheapy/status/902605955484942336
https://twitter.com/XoCheapy/status/902606104852520960
https://twitter.com/XoCheapy/status/902606234662010880
https://twitter.com/XoCheapy/status/902606658878058496
Other folks seemed to agree with Azealia. When a Twitter user called out M.I.A for relying on “Black sounds like everyone else,” M.I.A responded with, “I came right after the 90s early 2000s success of Indian riddim in dancehall/hip hop! Missy timberland /big pimpin coolie riddim sounds ta.”
https://twitter.com/MIAuniverse/status/902561505786425345
M.I.A also got criticism for tweeting the “concept of carnival itself is frm ancient Hindu tradition who gods r celebrate paraded to sounds of drums/music around the town on floats.” She later corrected this tweet saying, “The concept of ‘carnival’ ALSO comes from ancient Indian culture that has sounds of drums and instruments.”
https://twitter.com/MIAuniverse/status/902596659963719681
She added, “cultures all have similarities.. so one can’t dominate the narrative of others.”
https://twitter.com/MIAuniverse/status/902601035654582272
This appears to be another messy conversation on cultural appropriation. Despite critical and commercial success, M.I.A does have a nuanced history when it comes to Black politics. We’ll keep you updated if the spat between Azealia and M.I.A continues.
Azealia Banks Calls M.I.A ‘Anti-Black’ was originally published on globalgrind.com
