Kanye West "Banned" Album Cover: Too Naked For Wal-Mart!

Kanye West posted a controversial cover for his new album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, this weekend, while declaring "Banned in the USA!!!"

The image features a painting of Kanye "chilling on the couch with my phoenix!" It was not chosen for the actual release, which disappoints West.

His Tweeting continued: "In the 70s album covers had actual nudity... It's so funny people forget that... Everything has been so commercialized now."

"So Nirvana can have a naked human being on they cover but I can't have a PAINTING of a monster with no arms and a polka dot tail and wings."

Follow the jump to see the "banned" naked Kanye West cover in question:

There you have it. This was banned?

"I know that cover just blew yall minds," Kanye Tweeted after posting the image above. "I wish yall could see how hard I'm smiling right now!!!

"I really don't be thinking about Wal-Mart when I make my music or album covers! I wanna sell albums but not at the expense of my true creativity."

He doesn't wanna be thinking about Wal-Mart ... but was he?

According to the LA Times, it was not actually banned, but Kanye may have decided not to use it so that stores like Wal-Mart would carry his stuff.

A source familiar with West's discussions with Universal Music Group's Island Def Jam regarding the cover art above agreed to speak solely on the condition of anonymity, proclaiming that he did "not want to lose my job over this."

The source implied that the debate was not one that was clear cut. West was strongly urged to use alternate art, the source conceded, but added that West "was told if he wanted to do it, the label would stand behind him."

What do you think of Kanye's "banned" cover?