M.I.A. and Zayn Malik have collaborated on her new song “Freedun” off of new album AIM, the rapper has revealed.
Others in the music industry that she has called on for help during the process include DJ Blaqstarr, Skrillex and even an old paramour, Diplo according to Billboard.
The “Paper Planes” rapper said to Entertainment Weekly that the two worked on their collaboration remotely, using the messaging app WhatsApp during her trip to India. “We just basically did it while I was here, because I’ve been here for a week-and-a-half. “We’ve just been going back and forth on, you know, WhatsApp.”
In the interview, M.I.A. described how the two bonded while writing together for his solo album away from One Direction, Mind of Mine.
“We have the same publishers and they wanted me to demo some songs for Zayn,” she said. “Before I started writing properly my own stuff [for AIM], I was thinking maybe I’ll write for other people instead. I really wanted to write a song for Zayn… We had a couple people in common. And that’s how it came about. I didn’t really approach him for my own record until later on. First, I thought I wanted to try writing a song for him.”
The two are slated to collaborate on her forthcoming album, though, which is set to be released on September 9 of this year. M.I.A. has described it as being the “cleanest” album she has in past interviews.
In other M.I.A. news, the rapper will not be headlining Afropunk Festival in London, which was announced on Friday July 15. The reason behind her being dropped from the festival was reportedly some controversial comments that she made about the Black Lives Matter movement in an interview with the Evening Standard.
