Rap superstar Kanye West hospitalized

 Rap superstar Kanye West

Rap superstar Kanye West was hospitalized on Monday with a "medical emergency" after canceling his tour, two days after a rambling onstage tirade against fellow artists Jay Z and Beyonce.

The "Saint Pablo Tour" was set to run through December 31 but all 21 remaining shows have been canceled, a spokeswoman for promoter Live Nation told AFP.

Hours later it emerged that West, 39, was being treated at a University of California, Los Angeles clinic, with gossip website TMZ reporting that he was undergoing psychiatric tests after being examined for exhaustion.    

Mike Lopez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department, told AFP officers had responded to an early afternoon "call of a disturbance" at an address in Los Angeles known to be the rapper's property.

"That disturbance became a medical emergency where the fire department came and treated the individual," he said, without naming West.

The multiple Grammy Award-winning musician did not immediately make any personal statement and his representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

Celebrity gossip website TMZ quoted an unnamed source saying the rapper was pulling out of the tour because he was exhausted.

"He's been working around the clock on fashion design, both his own line and the Adidas line," the source was quoted as saying.

Since August, West has performed around 40 dates in Canada and the US, rapping above the stage on an innovative "floating" platform.