Cyrus Langhorne
Grammy-winning rapper Kanye West‘s camp has officially released a statement on his Billboard Music Awards performance last weekend being “overly” edited.
The statement acknowledges the over-usage of censors during his two-song set.
“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.” (Billboard)
The latest reports claimed Ye was frustrated with the annual showcase because censors bleeped unnecessary lyrics.
Kanye’s mostly-silenced closing act was the talk of the award show — but sources close to the rapper tell us Billboard 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. (TMZ)
According to reports, a portion of Ye’s five-minute performance, which he performed “All Day” and “Black Skinhead,” fell victim to censorship.
On Sunday night, though, what the rapper lost in hypemen he gained in unheard lyrics, as ABC censored more than a minute of the performance, leaving some viewers to wonder if the sound had cut out. West was onstage for 5 minutes and 18 seconds, though sound was only available to home viewers for 4 minutes and 16 seconds of his set. (Rolling Stone)
To make matters worse, Ye also endured some boos courtesy of the audience before and after his set.
Boos from the audience even before the controversial rapper took the stage indicated doom. When it was announced that West would be performing after the commercial break, the attendees in the venue booed loudly, reports a Yahoo Music editor on site. Even West’s sisters-in-law, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, received negative reaction from the crowd when they introduced him. The disapproval continued throughout his set that included his heavily bleeped songs “All Day” and “Black Skinhead.” (Yahoo!)
they set my boy up smh……
finger pointing can go either way with this…kanye has a right to expect to speak if they ask him and pay him to speak with no warning…current info ..shows they never talked about what he was going to perform…so for them shame on you….but knowing kanyes history with rants music and outspoken expressions that this was gonna be 100% kanye…he does not do regular shows thats why they picked him to close….so in the end i think they wanted him to be over the top for rating….for them its a win….people are still talking and by now wondering what will happen next year or debating if they should watch next year….either way their talking about which is what they want free promotion…
so its in that thought that i feel they might have played kanye….they paid him so they not cheat him…but he a artist / creator every painting has meaning and effort so for that i know he didnt half ass and to go super hard and not be able to give the people what you made can trigger some just feelings….i can see why he may feel used in a bad way…the billboard has young viewers so i understand the censorship and while it might have been better to pick a more pg artist i celebrate the idea of kanye conquering another mountain
I say it would feel more like they played him even though he got paid just because there will be a lot of people who just take it as a “bad kanye performance” and not an error with equipment etc. I can tell you Ive never seen anyone else have such a bad set up. Mics go out but have you ever seen bad equipment and super censoring in the same performance? lol crazy
i can agree with you !!
what i can say about censorship is that for some reason hip hop artist have less freedom…if i may present to examples..Hunger Games (hanging on a tree) directly relates to times in black culture where we were mistreated and killed for no reason…jennifer lawerance sings a version and no one seems to care…
then your have foster the people: (Pumped up kicks) they play this on the radio in the morning when parents are dropping off kids and in the afternoon never not one edit and the clearly sing about a kid shooting up a school….i get that the n word is dangerous because a honest fan may try to sing it and instantly insult some one but…why let some do it and then when hip hop does it…call it bad…
Thanks for taking time to read my thought and thanks for sharing yours