Kanye West Says Billboard Music Awards Performance Was 'Grossly Over-Censored'

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Kanye West's performance at Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards was heavily bleeped, and today the rapper is breaking the silence with his displeasure at being censored.

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"Kanye West was grossly over-censored at the Billboard Music Awards," the rapper’s rep said in a statement to ET. "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."

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During the rapper’s performance of "All Day" and "Black Skinhead," the audio frequently cut out for long moments at a time, leading some fans to wonder if the awards show was having technical difficulties.

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Kanye’s rep added: "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."

ABC and Dick Clark Productions, who produced the awards show, did not comment on the controversy, though a source told ET that Kanye did not come to rehearsals for the show or provide lyrics to his songs. This reportedly left ABC to go on their best judgment in the moment when censoring the live broadcast. Producers of the broadcast were not involved in the censoring.

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