<i>Entertainment Tonight</i>

Kanye West gives his side of the story regarding his arrest in Newcastle, England on Friday after an altercation with a member of the paparazzi.

In a recent blog, Kanye explains the events that led to his arrest. "I was encountered by a thirsty paparazzi as usual. He felt he had more rights to my space then me, so I put my hand up to prevent him from taking my image."

He continues, "I didn't assault him but merely putting my hand up to cover his lens. My security yelled, 'Get the camera off him.' I guess in all the commotion the camera scraped [the paparazzo's] nose."

Kanye said three hours later, the cops showed up at his hotel room door to arrest him. "They placed me in handcuffs and drove me to the station. They spoke about how this was obviously a publicity stunt by the photographer but they still had to go through the motions."

According to MTV UK, police arrested Kanye on suspicion of assault, but he was quickly released without charge.