Maxwell in Race Row over Justin Bieber 'Light-skinned Negro' Jibe

R'n'B singer Maxwell has found himself at the centre of a race row after referring to Justin Bieber as a "light-skinned negro".

The crooner who made his name with This Woman's Work stoked up a firestorm of controversy when he shared a tweet jokingly praising the 19-year-old Canadian pop superstar as a "light-skinned negro".

Maxwell took to Twitter to celebrate light-skinned black entertainers including Drake, Prince and Chris Brown.

"Shout out to prince albsure chrisbrown jeffrey wright drake and justin bieber! long live the light skinned negro ," he told his 631,000 followers.

But fans were unimpressed and within minutes his timeline was filled with comments accusing him of turning the Baby hitmaker's behaviour into a "black thing".

"I was trying to figure out when Justin Beiber transformed into a light-skinned negro," one commenter said.

"Since when did behaving like a a**ehole become a black thing? I'm confused."

Another wrote: "He's obviously just playing! If anything he is shading Justin Bieber, since he likes to act all black."

Maxwell tried to calm the situation.

"Can a brother make a joke geez louise damn y'all a rough crowd," he said. "So i see we're getting the joke wheeew~ that was close! Laughter is the best medicine so heal up, pick up, bring it back, come rewind."

In July, X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne attributed Bieber's wayward behaviour to him trying to "act black".

"I think he's lost, I really do," Osbourne told the Daily Beast. "I think he doesn't realise he's white and not black - that's a huge problem. And, at the point he's at in his career, it's so dangerous because we've seen it all before a million times."