Kanye West has been forced to defend himself after fans failed to find a joke he made about Britney Spears amusing.

The rapper provoked anger from some of his followers on Twitter at the weekend when he poked fun at Spears' new single for beating him and Jay-Z to number one on the iTunes chart.

"Yo Britney, I'm really happy for you and I'mma let you be #1, but me and Jay-Z's single is one of the best songs of all time!" he wrote.

The joke mirrored West's infamous on stage attack against Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) in 2009.

But when fans started to criticise the rapper over the Spears comment, he replied: "When I said the comment about Britney I was giving her props for being #1 not dissing her at all!

“How can you 'let' someone be number one??!! That was the whole joke!!! I know intelligent people know this so bear with me.”

He added: "But stop making it seem that my aim is to hurt or down people! That's just not my style! As pop stars we're all in this s**t together! We on the inside of the TV!"

Meanwhile, Spears' new single 'Hold It Against Me' has been rush-released due to high demand.

West and Jay-Z's single 'H.A.M' is the first song to be taken from their forthcoming joint album 'Watch The Throne'.

(by Jason Gregory)