Update: M.I.A has sought to clarify her position on Black Lives Matter and the media via a pair of tweets.

The ‘Bad Girls’ rapper also says she’s “surprised I’m still alive.”

M.I.A has hit out at Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement, asking when those artists will start speaking out about Syrian, Muslim and Pakistani lives.

“It’s interesting that in America the problem you’re allowed to talk about is Black Lives Matter,” she told ES Magazine today (April 21). “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.”

She continued: “And you cannot ask it on a song that’s on Apple, you cannot ask it on an American TV programme, you cannot create a tag on Twitter, Michelle Obama isn’t going to hump you back.”

The London-born, Sir Lankan bred artist also said she is surprised she is still alive: “I came from war. When I was growing up I didn’t really think I’d live beyond about 25. I never thought I would be old enough to drive or have a house or raise a child. Having to do it is really difficult.”

M.I.A recently dropped two new tracks and an album is expected later this year.