Well if you tuned in to the Billboard Awards the other night, one of the most memorable performances of the night was Kanye West: Because you hardly heard or saw him.
Granted, before the live show, artists typically rehearse (or do a run through at the very least).
Kanye neglected to do that and that may have costed him [plus the fact that whoever had their hand on the censor button like…totally didn’t know the words to his two songs “All Day” and “Black Skin Heads”].
Considering that fact, ABC’s button-holder obviously elected to take a: “when all else fails, consistently push the button,” approach [because that’s precisely what they did]-consistently to beat with the bleeps.
To add insult to inaudible injury of the outspoken rapper’s set being reduced to mere soundbites, the stage pyrotechnics used made it nearly impossible to even see West-he just went: “Poof” pretty much.
If you didn’t see it, here goes:
Well this was one of those times where seeing + hearing Kanye take to the stage (uninterruptedly) was welcomed and wanted.
Fans complained and spoke out. And in turn, statements were released on West’s behalf:
”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.”
Spitfire .
Media Maestro .
Writing Rhinoceros .
