James Arthur: anatomy of a Twitter disaster

It has been a difficult few days for James Arthur, with an appearance on Radio 1Xtra, in which he tried his hand at rapping, sparking a chain of events that led to his departure from Twitter, with his account now run by his management. How did last year's X Factor winner get to this point? Here's how ...

Step one: Wednesday

Arthur causes a small ruckus in the press by recording an expletive-heavy session for Radio 1Xtra's Fire in the Booth, for apparently being rude about Rita Ora in his rhymes. However, the consternation is much larger among the UK's MCs, who believe that an X Factor winner with clunky rhyme skills shouldn't be impinging on their territory.

Step two: Thursday

One such person to air his grievances about Arthur's work is the gregarious Croydon battle MC Micky Worthless, an alumnus of the UK's main battle league, Don't Flop. 'How is @JamesArthur23 going to battle in public when he ain't even allowed to show his teeth in public?' he tweets.

Step three: Thursday

Amazingly, James decides he should respond on Twitter. Repeatedly. And get his fans to bombard Worthless with hate as well. The actual rapper responds in kind for a while, then decides to rush out a diss track, and a few hours later the world is presented with his Stay in Your Lane, James! - which suggests Arthur's success is down to performing fellatio on Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh.

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Step four: Thursday

Five hours later, Arthur responds in kind with Hey Mickey, which sounds like someone learning to rap over a Casio keyboard set to ' hip-hop 2'. Its central refrain is the blistering, partly sung motif, 'Mickey, please stop making that music, you are not very good.' Back on Twitter, the battle rap community is united in its hooting derision, while Arthur's fans are adamant that Worthless has been comprehensively bodybagged.

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Step five: Friday

Heatworld.com reports on the escalating beef. They note the parts when James calls his quarry a 'fucking queer' and 'Taliban' - Worthless is of Middle Eastern extraction - without being excessively pejorative about the language. Its tone is amused at the absurdity of it all. It soon becomes apparent that the rest of the world is not ...

Step six: Friday

The gay press picks up on the story, as Gay Star News reports, perhaps with a touch of exaggeration, that the track 'outraged young fans', when most of them were still on Twitter having a go at Micky Worthless. Around this time, the SoundCloud file of Arthur's song is taken down.

Step seven: Friday

Celebrities wade in. The ball starts rolling on Twitter with Matt Lucas's succinct, 'Fuck you @JamesArthur23 for using the phrase 'fucking queer' in your latest track. Fuck you.' Then, more crucially, Frankie Boyle gets involved. Arthur decides to cross swords with Frankie and try his hand at dealing with hecklers. He proves to be as adept at that as he is at dope rhyme flow.

Step eight: Saturday

The tabloid news wades in, with first the Mirror and then the Star reporting on the 'homophobic slur' and then the Sun running a huge piece dubbing Arthur 'the biggest bell-end in pop'. Arthur, meanwhile, has been playing Children in Need and his Twitter feed, for now, concentrates solely on that.

Step nine: Saturday

The climbdown continues. Arthur issues a very long, heartfelt apology on Twitter in which he uses the classic caveat that he has ' many many gay friends', citing Rylan Clark. Former Coronation Street star Bev Callard replies, 'Bit late mate.' But Matt Lucas accepts the apology. Even so, Arthur can still be found getting stuck into Frankie Boyle. Arthur: 'I feel sorry for your kids.' Boyle: 'I feel sorry for them too because next year they'll have to watch you in panto.' Arthur's attempts to take on Boyle on Twitter have since been removed.

Step 10: Saturday night

The saga reaches its epic climax. Arthur bows out with a heartfelt tweet of '‪#LOVE to my fans but I'm coming off Twitter for good. HQ will be doing all my tweets from now on. PEACE!'. Tweets henceforth refer to him, poignantly, in third person. The battle world declares Micky Worthless to be their king for the week, and then the tale is given its final seal - a full recounting on the Daily Mail website.

And the result? James Arthur has picked up more than 4,000 new followers since Friday.