Will.I.Am defends 'blackface' performance at MTV VMAs

If there hasn't already been enough outrage over the 2010 MTV VMAs, the internet is now firing not just at Lady Gaga's steak-and-kidney frock but at Will.I.Am's face paint. The Black Eyed Peas frontman has hit back at criticism of his "blackface" at the awards show. "Let go of the past," he wrote. "There are far more important things to bark about."

Will.I.Am appeared in the pre-show for Sunday night's gala, performing Check It Out with Nicki Minaj. While his partner donned purple lycra and a hot pink hairdo, Will.I.Am went for black leather, dark sunglasses and pancake makeup. It was a look more Max Headroom than Al Jolson, but never underestimate the internet's capacity for righteous indignation. Before long, Will.I.Am was being accused of poor taste, minstrelsy and even "setting black people back".

The rapper seemed scarcely able to believe it. "Are you guys serious?" he wrote on Twitter. "My outfit set 'black people back 100 yrs'?" Telling fans to "choose your twits wisely", he insisted that "no education sets people back, [or] no jobs, [or] bad health". "Just because I wear all-black clothing including head mask ... it shouldn't be looked at as racial," he wrote. "There are far more important things to bark about (jobs, health, education) [than] a black man wearing all black everything."

Amusingly, the artwork for the song Check It Out shows Will.I.Am in the same costume, but has the opposite problem – a complete lack of colour. But the Black Eyed Peas frontman's best response seems to be his coincidental new song for Sesame Street, What I Am. "I'm going to keep my head up high," he sings in the video, which debuted this week. "Nothing's going to bring me down." Perhaps he should dress up like Big Bird.