M.I.A.'s new album will be her last

M.I.A.'s latest album Aim will be her last.

The controversial British rapper is planning to move away from music, and as a result has ruled out putting out any more albums after her current record, saying that she wants to concentrate on other pursuits besides music.

"It's my last record so I wanted it to be happy," she tells BBC Radio 1. "There's no complaints on it. (It's) another side to me completely. I don't know if people know (about) that."

When asked whether she was really abandoning the making of full records she adds, "Yeah, I think so. I wanna go and do some other stuff and take some time out."

Announcing the release of Aim on Thursday (14Jul16), she posted an emotional piece written by Sri Lankan author Sinthujan Varatharajah on her website, which began, "Survivors of war, conflict and genocide live on as IDPs (internally displaced persons) and refugees, dispersed across their homelands and the globe. They embody the violence that has displaced them into the unknown, into uncertainty and into camps and council estates."

The Paper Planes star, who was born in London, England, but moved to Sri Lanka as a child, where her family were forced to hide from army soldiers during the country's civil war, has become an increasingly vocal political activist in recent years, notably speaking out for refugees amid the mass migration sparked by the ongoing Syrian civil war. Before she became a musician, the star also had a career as a filmmaker and visual artist.

However, she is not quite ready to abandon music entirely, saying that she will still, "make music" but will no longer release anything in album form after Aim.