R&B's crooning heartthrob August Alsina made his debut at the American Music Awards on Sunday (Nov. 20), but not at all how he expected to.

Gracing the stage behind hip-hop frontrunners Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, DJ Khaled and Future, Alsina discovered during his performance that something funny was going on with his mic.

The star-studded performance of DJ Khaled’s Major Key single “Do You Mind,” absent of Chris Brown, included verses from all five of the hip-hop tastemakers. But the fact that Alsina appeared to be lip-syncing through the tune left a bad taste in some fans’ mouths. According to Alsina, he was just as taken aback by the AMA technical staff’s failure to operate his mic. Admitting that he felt “played” just like his fans, the New Orleans native seemed to have taken the technical difficulty rather lightly.

However, in a recent Instagram post, Alsina claims to have learned his mic’s audio was purposely nixed. In the post, there is a text message thread from an unidentified person claiming that the AMA tech staff was given specific instructions not to run his mic to live television.

After the individual promises to “get to the bottom of it,” the “No Love” singer expresses in the screenshot that he is deeply hurt and sends a message to the AMA staff regarding the alleged muted mic conspiracy.

“This has bothered my spirit for the longest time, I'm more confused than yesterday,” he wrote. “Is it because I'm new and that was my first introduction to the AMA world? Is it because I'm black and you don't know what to expect? Is it because of my past that you may be trying to bind me to? Or is this pure hate and just to rob me of a moment?”

He went on to explain that he felt the AMAs purposely wanted to convey the image that he was lip-syncing and that he later met a woman who congratulated him on the performance despite the mix up.

Check out what Alsina had to say to his fans and the AMA staff below.