Is Ed Sheeran's homophobic banter with a friend in the past coming back to haunt him?
According to the Daily Mail, the Grammy-nominated singer came under fire for his alleged "homophobic rap" in a past video.
The video that was taken in 2011 made its way to the public earlier this week. It highlighted the songwriter's five-minute freestyle battle with rapper Devlin.
"Yo, I freestyle to the fa**oty man," The Mirror quoted the 24-year-old acoustic star. "I go on the bus and I sleep for a day, then I come back and they're like, Ed, you look like this gay."
He also added, "These guys are safe they're not gay mans."
The video, which was quickly taken down, pre-dated Sheeran's attack on a homophobic fan at his buddy's Taylor Swift's concert in Texas, a couple of years ago.
"To the people picketing outside the arena. Keep your homophobic views to yourself, it's 2013," he posted on Twitter back then.
Is Ed Sheeran secretly homophobic or was he just fooling around with a friend?
A spokesperson for the singer slammed the reports, saying, "Ed was sending up rappers who make homophobic remarks. He is clearly not homophobic."
Nevertheless, the terms he used in the video reportedly offended a gay rights group
"Homophobic language is a real issue in Britain, and is endemic in our schools," a Stonewall spokesperson said, according to The Mirror. "It's important to think about the words you choose to use, as what some people see as 'banter' can have a negative and lasting effect."
It looks like Sheeran wasn't too affected by the video. The British world star is currently touring Australia and New Zealand and plans to come back in November for more concerts. He also reached two billion streams on Spotify and he couldn't help but share the good news to his fans.
"2 billion streams on spotify is nuts too. Well chuffed with that," he announced Twitter.
He's also releasing a new music video off of his latest album, "X." The music video for "Photograph" will reportedly be "special."
