M.I.A. drops "Foreign Friend" with Dexta Daps ahead of new album A.I.M.

08 September 2016, 11:54 | Written by Laurence Day

(News)

(M.I.A.)

M.I.A. has shared the proper version of "Foreign Friend" ahead of new record A.I.M. later this month.

The new version with Dexta Daps debuted on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show yesterday. Hear March's demo on Soundcloud.

Speaking to Lowe, M.I.A. explained how the collaboration with the Jamaican dancehall star came about:

“I spend a lot of time in the Caribbean and, since I'm not allowed to go to Sri Lanka since the government banned me, the Caribbean is like Sri Lanka without the war. I've been going there since 2000. So I went there to check on my friends, just to have some time out. Dex's song was on the radio 24/7. He was the man, basically. All the kids were like, ‘You’ve gotta work with him’. They sort of pushed me into it – I just wanted to do something that’d make my friends happy. So I reached out and he said ‘Yeah’.

"We sort of met in Jamaica. Then I found out he wrote this song called ‘Morning Love’ which happened to be my favourite song at the time. And it was just like, no question about it, I had to get some Dexta Time. But obviously, when we got together, it could only go as far as being best friends.”

The official edition of "Foreign Friend" follows "Freedun" - featuring Zayn Malik - the "Bird Song" remixes by Diplo and Blaqstarr, last year's "Borders", and "Go Off".

A.I.M. is due out tomorrow, 9 September, and will follow 2013's Matangi.

Listen to the track below.