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M.I.A., the 'Paper Planes' and 'Bad Girls' singer, has criticised the West's obsession with selling 50 million Taylor Swift records and promoting consumerism around the world, while ignoring the plight of African migrants. The comments, made in an NPR interview, come on the back of her new politically-charged single 'Borders', which concerns Europe's refugee crisis.
M.I.A. told NPR: "As a musician, I feel like we are part of promoting ideas to people. You know, ultimately we fight to get what we do in the West into the homes and the screens of every single person on the planet. We want to make money off it, and you want to sell 50 million Taylor Swift records to people in Africa. Obviously, some of the kids are gonna say, 'Okay, yeah, I want the dream,' and you've got migrants who believe in the aggressiveness of our sale of democracy. We can't really blame people when they are ready to embrace it."
The rapper also highlighted the tension between the globalised world and the traditional national border system: "You don't put the borders on Apple, you don't put borders on YouTube, and you don't put borders on MTV. So to make the borders even taller when actually what the creative world is doing, or the business world is doing, is actually the opposite, then you're always going to have this problem."
Check out the full NPR interview below:
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