M.i.a. Baffled By Video Controversy

Rapper M.I.A. is “baffled” by the controversy surrounding her video for new single BORN FREE - joking that JUSTIN BIEBER’s promos are “more violent” than her own clip.

The footage shows military police rounding up red-headed boys in a series of violent raids, transporting them to a remote desert location and then forcing them to run through a minefield. The survivors are then shown being beaten to death.

The video was immediately banned by bosses at YouTube.com for its graphic violence and nudity, but the Paper Planes hitmaker can’t understand why the film has caused so much outrage.

She tells Britain’s NME magazine, “It baffles me that everyone seems to be obsessed with deciphering the meaning to it… We don’t know what the process is for this one is yet. I haven’t thought about it yet and I don’t want to have to.”

And the star even jokingly compares her work to that of clean-cut teen pop star Bieber.

She adds, “I find the new Justin Bieber video more violent and more of an assault to my eyes and senses than what I’ve made.”