M.I.A. kicks off 'Matangi' New York show with a message from Julian Assange

Always one for stirring things up, M.I.A. kicked off her New York show last night with a live-via-Skype message from the controversial Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. 

The online iconoclast is currently living inside London's Ecuadorian embassy, which has granted him political asylum. If Assange leaves the Embassy, he will be immediately arrested and sent to Sweden t face sexual assault charges.

The M.I.A.-Assange connection goes deeper than just a concert stunt. Apparently, Assange helped Maya write Matangi track "aTENTion."

"Julian Assange came into the studio and took my computer and basically decrypted the whole of the internet, and downloaded every word in the whole of the language that contained the word 'tent' within it," M.I.A. told the BBC. "He gave me, like, 4,000. And I finished the song. He doesn't get a writing credit, but he gets a thank you."

Check out photos of the Assange intro below:

The opening act for #MIA is Julian Assange. pic.twitter.com/71IzS2XdMH

— Jayne Glick (@TripsJ) November 2, 2013

Matangi hits shelves November 5.