It doesn’t take much to throw Kanye West off his mood game but he arguably has a case after the noise-cancelling job the Billboard Music Awards producers did during his performance of “All Day” and “Black Skinhead.”
As we reported earlier, the original live televised version missed a few n-word bombs but by the time it aired for us on the West Coast, the producers just threw in the towel and pushed the mute button.
Now, hell is waiting around the corner for payback.
Reports TMZ:
Kanye West is pissed off at the Billboard Awards for heavily censoring his performance of “All Day” and “Black Skinhead” because he says they cut his audio even when he wasn’t dropping profanities.
Kanye’s mostly-silenced closing act was the talk of the award show — but sources close to the rapper tell us producers knew when he was going to curse because he gave them the lyrics exactly as he performed them … and yet they yanked his audio for up to 15 seconds at a time.
Our sources point out that during “Black Skinhead” a lot of clean lyrics were censored. For instance, the lines — “My leather black jeans on” … and “Middle America” were dropped. In other cases, it appears the censor had an itchy trigger finger, and pulled the audio several seconds early.
As we reported … Kanye did not attend final rehearsal — but we’re told that’s because doctors had him on vocal rest. He even needed a cortisone shot over the weekend. Still, he did 2 rehearsals in L.A. earlier in the week for Billboard.
As for the fact you couldn’t see Kanye — we’re told he gave producers a specific note about changing lighting and camera angles. We’re told Yeezy’s a perfectionist when it comes to his final product, and feels like they screwed him.
His people also released an infuriated statement:
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. 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.
If you missed it or need a refresher, the latest Kanye West Billboard Music Awards performance can be seen below.
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Photo: WENN
