Kanye West felt his Billboard Music Awards performance was “grossly over-censored”.
The 37-year-old rapper, who has won 21 Grammy Awards in his career, closed out the ceremony by performing his songs All Day and Black Skinhead with onstage guests Theophilus London and Allan Kingdom.
But fans viewing the show didn’t hear much of the tunes as most of the set was muted and Kanye is incensed about his largely blacked out performance.
“Kanye West was grossly over-censored at the Billboard Music Awards. Non-profane lyrics such as ‘with my leather black jeans on’ were muted for over 30 second intervals,” his representatives noted in a statement released to Entertainment Weekly. “As a result, his voice and performance were seriously misrepresented.”
Under regulations created by America’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC), certain curse words and nudity are banned from airing on specific types of broadcasts.
But apparently most of the lyrics muted in Kanye’s performance would not have been considered obscene by the FCC.
“It is ridiculous that in 2015, unwarranted censorship is something that artists still have to fight against,” the press release continued.
Kanye’s camp insists the star remains so upset because he feels his fans were cheated by the censorship.
“Although West was clearly set up to face elements beyond his control during the live broadcast, he would like to apologise to the television audience who were unable to enjoy the performance the way he envisioned,” the statement ended.
His Billboard Music Awards set was also mired by low visibility.
Flamethrowers and smoke made it nearly impossible for some fans to even see Kanye as he performed his hit songs.
