British MC M.I.A., aka Maya Arulpragasam, has signed a deal with Interscope records, AiM has learnt. Home of rap artists such as Dr Dre, Eminem, Will Smith and 50 Cent, Interscope is owned by the world's biggest music group, Universal.

The hotly tipped artist will release her debut album Arular in the United States on March 22nd. British stores will get it for April 25th.

The album was originally due for late February but her label XL Recordings pulled it less than a week before it hit stores, claiming a failure to clear unspecified samples.

The UK release will apparently include an extra track, called Uraqt, which contains a Quincy Jones sample that, XL says, "was not cleared in time for its inclusion on the U.S. release."

According to the deal her album will still be released by XL Recordings, and distributed by Fontana, the independent distribution arm of Universal Music Video & Distribution. Interscope is involved with Arula on a licensing basis only. The signing is for future releases by the MC.

The Sri Lankan born artist, who shot to fame last year with the release of her second single Galang, has spent an increasing amount of time building up a name in the United States. Galang reached number 12 on the UK dance charts.

A bootleg Sholay remix of Galang also reached number 2 in Bobby and Nihal's chart, remixed by upcoming producer Sunit Panchal. That is available here.

Maya came to the UK aged 11 when her family fled war-torn Sri Lanka, later gaining a place at the prestigious Central St Martin's College of Art and Design in London. She became involved in the music scene while doing CD front covers.

She finished her first ever tour of the UK last week, having supported Roots Manuva at the Brixton Academy on March 4th. She will soon head back to the States for more dates, starting with Seattle in mid March and continuing with Miami and California for May. A full US tour is being planned later in the Spring.

You can catch M.I.A on 11th March at Fabric, London for the Joe Ransom Fabric CD Launch Party.