50 Cent has posted a series of messages on Twitter poking fun at the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

The rapper has been criticised by fans over the comments, but defended his tweets, saying he writes them for “shock value”.

In a post on Friday (March 11), 50 Cent said: "Wave will hit 8am them crazy white boys gonna try to go surfing."

And in another message on Twitter, he wrote: “Look this is very serious people I had to evacuate all my hoe's from LA, Hawaii and Japan. I had to do it. Lol."

50 Cent later returned to the social-networking website to explain the reason behind his messages.

“Nah this is nuts but what can anyone do about it. Let's pray for anyone who has lost someone,” he wrote.

“Some of my tweets are ignorant I do it for shock value. Hate it or love it. I'm cool either way 50cent."

The earthquake and tsunami have killed more than 2,000 people, although the figure is expected to rise further.

(by Jason Gregory)