Kanye West reportedly wanted the cover of his 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' album to be banned.

The 'Lost In The World' rapper commissioned New York based artist George Condo to create the cover for his last album, and the artist said Kanye had told him he was looking for "something that will be banned".

Describing the cover Kanye picked in his own words, George told The New Yorker magazine: "West chose the one with a naked black man on a bed, straddled by a naked white female creature with fearsome features, wings, no arms and a long, spotted tail."

To come up with the cover, Kanye had visited the artist in his studio and they listened to songs intended for the album for hours, after which George created a number of paintings, most of which were used in the artwork for 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'.

In October, ahead of the album's release, Kanye then announced that the album's cover had been banned by retail chain Wal-Mart, one of the biggest in America.

He tweeted: ""Yoooo they banned my album cover!!!!! Banned in the USA!!! They don't want me chilling on the couch with my Phoenix! (sic)"

As a reference point of how this was unfair, he cited the cover of Nirvana's 1993 album 'In Utero' which showed a naked anatomical model of a woman with wings.

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

A spokesperson for Wal Mart has, however, denied the company ever banned the cover, saying: "We did not reject the cover artwork and it was not presented to us.

"We're excited about Kanye West's new album and we look forward to carrying it in our stores on 22 November."