Earlier tonight, Kanye West performed his new single "All Day" and "Black Skinhead," off Yeezus, at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards, tonight. While ABC ended up bleeping out most of his performance, you'll want to tune in to it below if you missed it. Complete with flames, dancing, and everything you saw at his performance during the 2015 Brit Awards, Ye ,slayed along with Allan Kingdom and Theophilus London, and then performed his Yeezus cut solo.
But, ABC seemingly censored more than 75 percent of the performance and Twitter wasn't having it. Plus, ABC, you really censored "My leather black jeans on?"
Kanye didn't disappoint in that his closing song was a giant FU to the general conventions of awards shows. #BBMAs
— Bill Werde (@bwerde) May 18, 2015
Shoutout to #BBMA for bleeping out 3/4 of Kanye verse 😂
— InstaG: 1LexDaRapper (@LexDaRapper) May 18, 2015
Yeah this is the last time Kanye performs for the #BBMA. They pretty much censored the whole performance.
— HenRock (@henrocksbb) May 18, 2015
Best Kanye Song Ever: *silence from network censors* #BBMA
— Cody Lillich (@CodyLillich) May 18, 2015
Literally all of Kanye's performance is censored. It's like I put my tv on mute. #BBMA
— ashley burrows ☮ (@ashbeee03) May 18, 2015
Nah this is the worst performance i ever seen it was nothing but mutes and kanye walking around like he's having an inferno match with kane
— Ahmed/June 5th (@big_business_) May 18, 2015
Some white powerful executive is sitting back saying so all we had to do was mute this Kanye guy the whole time?
— Charlamagne Tha God (@cthagod) May 18, 2015
I would say Kanye did a great job but I wouldn't know because I could hear anything so....
— anal girl (@benadryI) May 18, 2015
Couldn't even hear Kanye's songs. Maybe they should've just let Taylor, Iggy, Imagine Dragons, Ed, and Pitbull do a medley. #BBMAs
— Pigeons & Planes (@PigsAndPlans) May 18, 2015Reports are also coming in that his microphone didn't work, but that doesn't quite make sense, seeing as how the music cut off, as well.
Kanye wasn't censored his microphone didn't work. No one could hear him #BBMAs pic.twitter.com/UB4td0vV6C
— Casey Neistat (@CaseyNeistat) May 18, 2015We'll update with more details when they become available.
UPDATE 5/19/15 6:10PM: A statement has been issued from Kanye West's camp regarding his performance at the Billboard Music Awards, in which it's explained that Kanye was "grossly over-censored," referencing lyrics like "with my leather black jeans on" getting cut out despite not being profane or controversial. An apology is also offered to fans who were unable to enjoy the performance because of the circumstances. Read the full statement below.
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.
