Broadcasted live at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Kanye West proceeds to the stage wearing a bulletproof vest at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas last May 17.
The 37-year-old rapper executed his songs Black Skinhead and All Day with all-star level efforts, but the audience immediately observed that ABC censors bleeped out huge portions of the songs on television. The audio of the performance frequently scratch out for lone moments at a time, leading some spectators to wonder if the awards show was having technical difficulties. Other fans even thought they were experiencing issues with their individual broadcasts and television receivers.
The entertainer has been almost invisible during his performance, which featured loads of lights and fire effects.
Kanye West has stated he was "grossly over-censored" during his act at the Billboard music awards night.
"Non-profane lyrics such as 'with my leather black jeans on' were muted for over 30-second intervals. As a result, his voice and performance were seriously misrepresented. It is ridiculous that in 2015, unwarranted censorship is something that artists still have to fight against. Although West was clearly set up to face elements beyond his control during the live broadcast, he would like to apologize to the television audience who were unable to enjoy the performance the way he envisioned," according to a statement released thru the rapper's publicist Tracy Nguyen Romulus.
The censorship was not the only difficulty West faced at the awards. Some of the live audiences booed the rapper, later joined in the performance by Theophilus London and Allan Kingdom, at the initial part and closing of his songs, according to some reports.
ABC and Dick Clark Productions, who produced the Billboard music awards show, have not commented on West's controversial statement, though a source told ET that Kanye did not provide lyrics to his songs or come to rehearsals for the show. This incident allegedly forced ABC to go on their best judgment in the moment when censoring the live airing. Broadcast producers were not included in the censoring.
Meanwhile, the FourFiveSeconds hit maker recently publicized he was changing his forthcoming album's name from 'So Help Me God' to 'SWISH', but has not yet declared when fans can expect to hear the LP.
I’m changing my album name to SWISH
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) May 3, 2015
I might change it again but that’s the name now — KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) May 3, 2015
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