Kanye West Lashes Out At The Media After Being Slammed For Wheelchair Incident In Australia

Kanye West has never been one to take any criticism sitting down. The very outspoken rapper always takes an opportunity to speak his mind and the same could be said about a recent incident where he was accused of forcing members of his concert audience to stand up even if they were in a wheelchair.

The incident in question took place in one of the concert tour stops over the past week in Kanye's "Yeezus Down Under Tour." Kanye played a series of shows in five cities in Australia and in one of his Sydney shows, controversy was started when Kanye stopped to ask members of the audience to stand up. He had often done this in the past and frequently asks his audience to become engaged in the show by dancing or jumping up and down. In the said concert, Kanye also said those who are handicapped or in a wheelchair may remain seated. He went through the crowd and spotted some people who were still sitting and asked the other members of the audience for confirmation that those seated were handicapped. Once satisfied, Kanye went on without any further fuss and performed for the audience.

When news reports from the incident came out, some implied he had forced the handicapped fans to stand. On his last tour stop in Australia which was held in Brisbane on Monday, Sept. 15, Kanye took the opportunity to use his stage time to fight back. He lashed out at the media for injecting negativity into his words and actions. As seen in a video (below) posted by a member of the audience, Kanye went into a full rant during his concert and had some choice words for the media:

"I'm a married, Christian man with a family," he said and he went on to say that he goes to his concerts and makes sure that everyone has a good time. He accused the media of demonising him and sensationalising the news about the wheelchair incident and he challenged everyboody to take a look at the videos of the incident again to see what really happened. He went on to talk about the real evils that are happening such as shootings and other violent activitiies and said that instead of focusing on the real news, the press are attacking him instead. He even mentioned a few TV hosts like Matt Lauer and Whoopi Goldberg of the American TV show "The View."

Videos of the incident showed what Kanye actually said. "Anybody, who is not handicapped or in a wheelchair - stand the f--- up. If you can not prove to me that you are in a wheelchair, then you need to be standing. If you can, then it is OK to sit down."

Despite clearly saying it was OK for handicapped people to stay seated, various reports have come out saying he insisted on getting the handicapped fans on their feet. Kanye's wife, Kim Kardashian, has also spoken out about the incident and defended her husband via an Instagram post.

Watch Kanye's mid-concert rant in the video below:

Source: YouTube/theflatbushvampire