US rapper Azealia Banks has defended calling the US entertainment blogger Perez Hilton a faggot during a Twitter argument.

The argument began after Hilton posted a criticism of Banks’s feuds with other artists. She then called him “dickbreath” and told him to “gobble a dick”.

Hilton told Banks, who last year said she was bisexual: “Some of your music is cute, but your attention-seeking ways are pathetic and hurtful. You drag while others choose to uplift!”

Banks responded: “Whatever bitch, you tried to sign me to ur little bum ass label in ’11 with them bullsshit ass artists…” She later tweeted: “omg u should just kill yourself… Like for real… lol what a messy faggot you are.”

After followers reacted badly to her posts, Banks responded by claiming: “A faggot is not a homosexual male. A faggot is any male who acts like a female. There’s a BIG difference.”

She later clarified “When I said acts like I female I should’ve said acts like a c*nt.”

She added: “If u listen to my music and are not offended by the word nigga… We’re not gonna go here with this faggot shitt… We’re just not. Lol.”

Last year the rapper told the New York Times that she is bisexual adding: “I’m not trying to be, like, the bisexual, lesbian rapper. I don’t live on other people’s terms.”

Banks is signed to Polydor, part of Universal Music Group. Despite her relatively modest profile in the UK, the BBC ranked her third in its ‘Sounds of 2012 Awards’.