Kid Cudi Fires Controversial Rapper M.I.A From His Tour — See Why

Up until May 4, 2026, M.I.A. has been opening for Kid Cudi on his Rebel Ragers Tour. However, after her May 2 performance in Dallas, the singer/rapper was unceremoniously fired from the tour.

Ironically, M.I.A. will now be MIA from Kid Cudi's shows.

The decision came after the artist was booed offstage in a now-viral clip. Venturing away from music for a moment, M.I.A. gave a speech that resulted in her being ousted from Kid Cudi's upcoming shows.

See what she said, and how both artists have responded to the backlash.

Referencing her song "Illygirl," M.I.A. announced at the show that she "can't do" that song. She added, "though some of you could be [illegal] in the audience."

That's when the booing started, at which point M.I.A. tried to calm the crowd by saying, "I’m illegal. Half my team is not here because they didn’t get the visa. ... Don’t listen to what the bots say on the internet."

There are also claims that she told the audience she's a Republican voter. However, we were unable to find that on video.

After the show, Kid Cudi took to Instagram to inform fans that M.I.A. was no longer part of the tour. In fact, he shared that he knew the artist was particularly outspoken and had spoken with her management team prior to the tour about Kid Cudi not wanting controversies from the shows.

The rapper claimed that M.I.A.'s management assured him she understood.

He continued, "After the last couple of shows, I’ve been flooded with messages from fans that were upset by her rants. This, to me, is very disappointing, and I won't have someone on my tour making offensive remarks that upset my fanbase. Thank you for understanding."

Like Kid Cudi, M.I.A. used social media to share her thoughts, lamenting the fact that she's being canceled. The singer referenced her body of work and accused Kid Cudi and his fans of hypocrisy for turning on her.

She wrote on X, "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. I don't need this virtue signal era to all of a sudden erase an entire life I've led."

The music world has been split along political party lines, as evidenced by the comments on M.I.A.'s post.

One person wrote, "You went from being a proud immigrant speaking for other immigrants to now supporting the ones who wanna do harm to immigrants while falling too low on interest conspiracy rabbit holes."

Another shared, "You can’t reason with woke, they have no understanding of logic or nuance, if they interpret something you say as wrongspeak, they will cancel you for heresy."

Those who are less politically inclined simply commented that both artists should keep politics out of music.