Kanye West is no stranger to making a controversial comment or two on Twitter, but one of his latest tweets appears to be a step too far.
The rapper sparked a backlash when he tweeted his support for US comic Bill Cosby, who has been accused of several cases of rape and indecent assault.
He tweeted: “BILL COSBY INNOCENT!!!!!!!!!!”
The tweet came a part of a series of posts that also mentioned Kylie Jenner’s rumoured deal with Puma, and the guestlist for his upcoming Yeezy Season 3 show.
Kanye West
Within seconds, the tweet - which has not been followed by any sort of explanation - had been retweeted by thousands of fans, and questioned by just as many:
Kanye has previously made reference to Bill Cosby, who has been charged with aggravated indecent assault following a 2004 incident and also faces dozens of accusations of rape and sexual assault. He denies any wrongdoing.
In his track ‘FACTS’, which dropped on Soundcloud last month, Kanye raps: “Do anybody feel bad for Bill Cosby?/Did he forget the names just like Steve Harvey?”
The ‘All Day’ rapper is currently in the studio completing work on his as-yet-untitled seventh album, which gets its debut at Madison Square Gardens in less than 48 hours time.
This isn’t the first time Kanye has used his studio downtime to ping out a few controversial tweets, and last month he caused quite the furore after mistakenly thinking he was being subtweeted by Wiz Khalifa.