Rapper Kanye West has attacked MTV for "antagonising" him and allegedly exploiting Britney Spears over their live performances at Sunday's video music awards.
West, who has produced two smash hit albums in the shape of The College Dropout and Late Registration, was reported to be angry about not winning any awards at the show in spite of being nominated in five categories.
In an interview with New York radio station Z100, he claimed that the broadcaster had misled him about his performance at the show and that he felt "betrayed".
He also alleged that the popular television station had tried to provoke him at the show in order to boost ratings at their showpiece event.
Speaking to the New York radio station, he said: "I felt like they deceived me, they were dishonest to me…nominate me for five awards and have me not win anything.
"It's almost like they were trying to antagonise me to create a TV moment to get some ratings at my expense you know. They knew that Britney wasn't ready and they had a performance so they exploited her."
"They didn’t give me an award just to see if I could give them a TV moment," he added.
Besides his anger at not winning any awards the star, who is currently promoting his single Stronger, said he didn’t like the idea of performances on a number of different stages - a technique tried for the first time on the show. He also claimed that Justin Timberlake had been given preferential treatment to him.
"I wasn't just mad that I just didn't win any awards. For me, [MTV] made it seem like performing on the main stage was a bad thing, and the suites were just so great. It was my dream when I made Stronger to open up the VMAs with a real power performance.
"And I just feel like I got betrayed by them," the rapper continues. "I feel like they tried to make it seem like I was so into everything that was going on in the show," he added.
"I really felt that they opened with Britney and they opened with Justin last year and they let Justin close the show this year. But also Justin and Timbaland already had their own suite. So that's what I was really upset about.
"Why don't you give me a chance given that Stronger is one of the number one songs on the planet right now?"
With a history of awards tantrums it is perhaps not surprising that West has flared up once more. He walked out of the American music awards after losing in 2004 and mounted the stage in 2006 at the MTV Europe music awards when he missed out on best video.
The rapper's eagerly-awaited album Graduation is set to be released in the US today. The record goes head-to-head with the latest offering from fellow hip hop star 50 Cent, whose new album, Curtis, will be out on the same day.
The pair have already been talking up the rivalry, with 'Fiddy' even saying he would not record again if his album was outsold by West.
