The 2015 Billboard Music Awards ending performance was a highly anticipated set from the newly crowned Dr. Kanye West. While the Chicago superstar’s pyrotechnic-heavy stage show may have dazzled those in attendance, the rest of the viewers at home got a barely listenable version of the performance.
Hip-Hop Wired live-tweeted the Billboard Music Awards Sunday night (May 17), and we noticed how much editing the staff at ABC possibly did to West’s tracks, “All Day” and “Black Skinhead.” For several long stretches, West’s vocals were silenced for what many viewers thought was questionable language, and there were moments where it seemed like someone in the production just leaned on the mute button.
The good folks over at Complex reported on the curious nature of things, adding an unconfirmed statement that West was not muted and that his microphone was giving him problems. That would seem to be the case as a couple of curse words and n-word bombs sneaked through television speakers, but ABC isn’t saying what the issue was just yet.
But as we noticed, if West’s microphone was indeed troubled then why would all the music and vocals go out as well?
Check out a clip of the performance below. If you saw the performance last night, what did you think? Was Kanye West’s microphone giving out or was he being purposely silenced? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.
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Photo: Streamable
