Rapper Faces Black Lives Matter ‘Blacklash’

The Black Lives Matter movement has garnered a lot of celebrity attention and support — especially from black artists.

Musicians including Snoop Dogg and Beyoncé have gone out of their way to show their support for the group and its various protests around the country.

The controversy is less about how BLM supporters are treating people who disagree, and more about how unwilling they are to tolerate dissenting voices.

However, not all artists are throwing their support behind BLM. Some have spoken openly about their concerns with BLM, and the statements are proving to sometimes mean bad news for their careers.

Rapper M.I.A. has perhaps faced the harshest consequences for her words on Black Lives Matter. In an April interview with the Evening Standard, M.I.A. spoke about the BLM movement and some of her reservations about it.

“It’s interesting that in America the problem you’re allowed to talk about is Black Lives Matter. It’s not a new thing to me — it’s what Lauryn Hill was saying in the 1990s, or Public Enemy in the 1980s. Is Beyoncé or Kendrick Lamar going to say Muslim Lives Matter? Or Syrian Lives Matter? Or this kid in Pakistan matters? That’s a more interesting question.”

The comments earned the rapper a good deal of controversy and flak, which all led to her being dropped as the headliner for the upcoming popular London-based Afropunk Festival, taking place in September.

Organizers for the festival didn’t try to keep their reason for dropping M.I.A. any secret.

“After discussing the situation with the artist and the community, a decision was agreed upon by all involved that M.I.A will no longer headline Afropunk London,” the festival said in statement.

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“A key part of the Afropunk ethos has always been educating one another, breaking down boundaries and sparking conversation about race, gender, religion, sex, culture, and everything that makes life worth living. This exchange has meant receiving wisdom, as well as imparting it in the most respectful way possible, with the participation of our entire community of fans, creators and artists.”

M.I.A. later tweeted, “Sorry I’m not doing Afropunk. I’ve been told to stay in my lane.”

The ironic part about the controversy is that the rapper’s comments are not entirely against BLM. They merely sound like an artist thinking out loud and speaking openly and honestly about their thoughts towards the movement. M.I.A. has also been a supporter of BLM through her music in the past.

M.I.A. even tried clarifying her statements in later tweets to little avail. “My question was, on American platforms what do they allow you to stand up for in 2016. This has been the number 1 question for me. A#blacklivesmatter B#Muslimlivesmatter. I’m not Muslim. My criticism wasn’t about Beyoncé. It’s how u can say A not B right now in 2016.”

The controversy with M.I.A., her statements, and her treatment is less about the way politically correct supporters of BLM are treating people who disagree, and more about how unwilling they are to even have slightly dissenting voices in their mix.

It’s further proof of a far-too-polarized country unwilling to discuss heated topics without pushing to one extreme side or the other.

Related: Dear Celebs Who Support Black Lives Matter … 

M.I.A. hasn’t been the only rapper embroiled in controversy over statements regarding BLM.

Kevin Gates, a Baton Rouge rapper, had some harsh words for BLM. “We kill each other, but as soon as a white boy kills one of us, everybody go to hoopin’ and hollerin,'” Gates said in a video discussing the nationwide protests. “When you stand for something, you’ve got the stand for it all the way, not halfway.”

Gates also touched on his own past experience as a two-time felon and how that informed his current views . “I got whooped by the police,” he said in an interview with radio host Shay Diddy. “I had no respect for authority that was talking to me. So I deserved what I got. I’m a felon. I get pulled over all the time. So I don’t feel like ‘Black Lives Matter,’ I’m talking about ‘All Lives Matter.'” Gates’ words and views have earned him controversy and backlash as well.

Another rapper, A$AP Rocky, had similar words for BLM recently. Discussing BLM on the radio show “The Breakfast Club,” Rocky said, “I mean, how come, you know, black lives only matter when a police take ’em, when a police officer takes it? And it should be like, black lives, it should matter when a black life take it. You know what I mean? It should always matter. All lives matter!”