Kanye West decries demonizing over wheelchair affair: 'Pick a new target'

Kanye West has blamed the media for sensationalizing a misunderstanding during his concert in Sydney, Australia where he stopped the show and demanded all audience members stand up. The problem was that some members of the audience couldn't stand up due to physical disabilities.

West stopped his Sydney concert last Friday, calling on the crowd to stand up before he would carry on with the track.

"I've decided I can't do this song, I can't do the rest of the show until everybody stands up," he says in a video recording that was later uploaded to YouTube.

As the crowd starts to rise to their feet, West comments on how long it's taking them to heed his command. Eventually, West singles out two audience members who are still not standing.

"This is the longest I've had to wait to do a song, it's unbelievable," he says.

"Now if he's in a wheelchair then it's fine," West continues, at which point members of the audience signal to the rapper that that is exactly the case.

"He's in a wheelchair right there? Only if he's in a wheelchair… OK," West says before launching back into the track.

On Monday, after news of the misunderstanding spread, West addressed the mistake during his concert in Brisbane, Australia. A video of his speech was also uploaded to YouTube.

In the video, the star accuses the media of trying to demonize him. "It's like, 'Welcome to today's news, ladies and gentlemen,'" he tells the crowd. "We've got Americans getting killed on TV, kids getting killed every weekend in Chicago, unarmed people getting killed by police officers… It makes you just want to reflect on what are the things that are a little bit more sensationalized than others."

West also says that he has worked hard to create years of "positive music," which is what he wants people to focus on.

"At my concerts, I make sure everybody has as good a time as possible. So all this demonizing me, it ain't going to work after a while. Pick a new target. Pick a new target," he says.

West's wife Kim Kardashian also took to Instagram to defend his actions. Kardashian posted a short clip of his concert to Instagram and expressed her frustration by the "lies in the media."

"Kanye never asked anyone in a wheelchair to stand up and the audience videos show that. He asked for everyone to stand up and dance UNLESS they were in a wheelchair," she wrote.

But some are not impressed with the star's actions.

Zachary Weeks from the Canadian Paraplegic Association said the star needs to change his behaviour.

"He needs to immediately switch from entertainer to role model," Weeks told CTV Edmonton.

Weeks added that those two fans probably wanted nothing more than to just have fun at the concert. "I'm sure they would have loved to stand up, and jam out to their Kanye West concert."