Kanye West: 'I was grossly over-censored at Billboard Music Awards'

Kanye West is far from happy about the way his performance at Sunday's (17May15) Billboard Music Awards was broadcast, insisting he was "grossly over-censored" as he closed out the show.

The rapper wrapped up the ceremony in Las Vegas with a medley of his tracks All Day and Black Skinhead, but viewers were left reaching for the remote control when entire portions of his live set were silenced by trigger-happy watchdogs keen to keep explicit language from airing on TV.

In addition, fans also had trouble seeing West onstage due to the pyrotechnics onstage at the MGM Grand and the subsequent smoke.

Critics took aim at Kanye on Monday (18May15), insisting he should have chosen expletive free songs or toned down the foul language - and a better stage set idea.

On Tuesday (19May15), West fired back in a statement released via his publicist.

Responding to the backlash, the statement read: "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."

A similar incident occurred during his live rendition of All Day at the U.K.'s BRIT Awards in February (15), when his pyrotechnics-heavy closing set was heavily censored.