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Azealia Banks Criticizes M.I.A. For Taking Credit For Black Culture

"Why do you care about Blacks and not Indians...?"

Azealia Banks never backs down when it comes down to feuds within the music industry. In the past, she’s fired shots at major acts, including Beyoncé, Rihanna and most recently Iggy Azalea. But after ending her beef with Iggy, Banks has narrowed her target on M.I.A. Now, the “Chi Chi" artist is calling out M.I.A. for allegedly stealing and taking credit for Black culture.

In a series of tweets under Banks’s new Twitter handle, @xocheapy, the rapper claimed M.I.A was “anti-Black” for ripping off Black culture. “M.I.A. be lowkey trying to take credit for black culture and the s**t is annoying,” Azealia wrote. “She’s like clearly quite anti-black.” The femcee also questioned the British rapper’s past comments, in which she stated Black artists copied her swag. “I don’t get her points a lot of the time. It’s like she came up in hip-hop then wants to be like what about my people, but tried to discredit," she added. "It’s always like do you care about blacks and not Indians when blacks took this from my culture. She stay trying to compare struggles. When it’s like, honey… Just spit your rhyme."

Azealia’s rant was seemingly sparked by M.I.A.'s Instagram post in which she was criticizing the industry for discrediting her due to her affiliation with producer Diplo. “It’s important you don’t see me as a lil thing diplo discovered because I’m a brown woman,” she wrote on Instagram. Diplo and M.I.A. reportedly dated and worked together early in her career. “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," she added.

But after Banks got that off of her chest, the rapper also announced her North American tour, which will kick off on October 3 and conclude on October 28. Tickets haven’t gone on sale yet, but check out Azealia’s comments about M.I.A. here.

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