Kanye West: ‘Everybody thinks I snapped from not winning VMA’

Rapper says it wasn't the awards that provoked his MTV outburst

Kanye West has revealed the real reason behind his angry incident at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday (September 9).

For Sunday’s event, West was among four performers who were given intimate ‘performance suites’ at the Palm’s Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Fall Out Boy, Foo Fighters and duo Justin Timberlake and Timbaland were also given suites.

MTV broadcast many performances from the suites throughout the ceremony, though West was upset at not being on the Main Stage explaining: “Everybody thinks I snapped from not winning, but there’s a lot of things that happen behind the scenes where you’re just not given a fair shake.”

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Speaking on BET’s 106 & Park yesterday, West says he was “talked into” performing at a suite.

He recalled: “It was always my dream to open the award shows with ‘Stronger’, and they talked me into doing the suite thing. Then when they had Britney open, I said ‘How are you going to have Britney open? Because she’s not ready’.

“We’ve been touring across the world. Give it to the artists that deserve it, you know what I’m saying? I wouldn’t have been mad if they opened it with Fall Out Boy or if they opened it with Timbaland.”

West said when he pushed the issue, he was told that the Main Stage did not “look good”.

“They told me, ‘That theatre stage, man, it don’t look good, you don’t want to perform on that, they’re gonna be sitting down. You don’t want that, you just need the suite.’

“So I’m sitting backstage, and I already hate the fact that I didn’t win no awards, and I see Justin getting ready. I say ‘Where are you going?’ and he says ‘I’m going to perform’ and I say ‘Where?’ and says ‘On the Main Stage’, and I said ‘The stage that they won’t let me perform on?’

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“And that’s when I was like ‘Give a black man a chance!’ West explained before sarcastically apologising to US conservatives “I’m sorry middle America, I’m sorry red states.”

West is reportedly outselling 50 Cent this week as the pair are embroiled in a battle to get to Number One.

West’s album ‘Graduation’ has projected sales of 700,000 while 50 Cents’ ‘Curtis’ album is reportedly expected to see 500,000.

There has been speculation that country music star (and ex-husband of Renee Zellweger) Kenny Chesney will secure the number one spot with his latest release ‘Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates’. Chesney is a multi-million-selling musician who has a strong history of debuting at Number One.

–By our New York staff.

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