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It takes quite a bit to steal the spotlight from Nicki Minaj’s purple-painted posterior. But that is exactly what The Black Eyed Peas Will.i.am. pulled off at the 2010 VMAs when he came out looking like Snake Eyes and Gumby’s love child.

Our first reaction was the obvious WTF but some folks went so far as to say he was rocking Black Face.

Dart_Adams :Will i am came on stage looking like one of the crows from “The Wiz”. WHAT. THE. FUCK. IS. HAPPENING. RIGHT. NOW?

The multiplatinum artist/producer took those criticisms to heart and immediately took to Twitter to defend his VMAs blackout.

This is the second time this year that a Black artist has gotten attention for choosing to paint their faces black as a form of artistic expression. R&B singer Estelle covered her face and brightened her lips red for the video to “Freak” and was one of the first to come to Will’s defense:

“#Today‘sDream: If you must critique pls oh pls Pay Attention to the implied Context, Context is Key”

But that didn’t stop folks on Twitter from having a field day with the outfit. Will.i.am was called everything from a “Gimp” to Sambo 3000, a minstrel from the future.

But what do you think? Was Will just being different or is this offensive?

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