Any piece of art, when you're putting it on a certain platform, if the platform becomes a political place, you can manipulate things.
M.I.A.I'm still working out my opinions - it's always a question mark. I leave loads of space open, and people don't like that.
M.I.A.I already feel that I am making a political statement by sticking around in music, when I am doing it so differently to everyone else.
M.I.A.I think I have to expand my creativity a bit, because it's difficult for critics to be, "Oh, this person writes their own lyrics and sometimes writes their own beats and sometimes makes her own videos." They funnel me through, "Oh, is it as good as blah-blah's record, which has had 50 million writers on it?"
M.I.A.Now, [hip-hop/grime artists] Stormzy, Skepta, or the Section Boyz have to be validated by Drake, Rihanna or Beyoncé. They're rolled into this one urban culture bubble; it's not really to do with, "I'm specifically f - ked off about my country and what's going on in my town." We're very much only showing success to artists who impress American artists, and I'm one of them.
M.I.A.