Rapper Kanye West has a reputation as one of music’s most outspoken stars, and now he has used his Twitter account to hit out at Britney Spears after she raced ahead of him in the US charts.
Kanye, 33, took to the social networking site to moan about Britney’s new single, Hold It Against Me, beating his collaboration with Jay-Z, H.A.M., to the US iTunes number one spot.
He wrote: “Yo Britney, I’m really happy for you and I’mma let you be #1, but me and Jay-Z single is one of the best songs of all time.”
The comments are remarkably similar to Kanye’s famous rant at Taylor Swift when she won the Best Female Video award over his friend Beyonce at the 2009 MTV VMA’s.
He took to the stage as the singer collected her award, interrupting her acceptance speech to say: “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’m going to let you finish but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time!”
Britney’s manager Adam Leber responded to his latest outburst with a sarcastic: “Thanks for ‘letting’ us be number one. Much appreciated…”
And after a barrage of angry comments from Britney supporters, including Avril Lavigne, Kanye was forced to backtrack and claim the whole thing had been a joke.
He wrote: “On a serious note, I’m truly happy for @AvrilLavigne and @BritneySpears… No hate in 2011!”
Britney’s much-hyped comeback single is due for release in the UK on 18th January. It has already topped the charts in the US, Canada, New Zealand and Spain.