Hip-hop superstar Kanye West has joined Twitter - and turned a man from Coventry into an online star.

The US rapper and record producer, 33, signed up to the social networking site for the first time on Wednesday and has since made Steven Holmes his first - and so far only - Twitter friend.

Mr Holmes's online followers shot-up from 60 to more than 1,500 following the rapper's surprise endorsement.

When Mr Holmes tweeted West back, writing: "Holy s**t bro, thx for following!", West replied: "You are the chosen one dun dun dun dun", leaving no explanation as to why he decided to pick him.

Mr Holmes confessed: "I feel pressure with my tweets now" to which West, who apologised last year after jumping on to the MTV stage as country star Taylor Swift received an award, saying Beyonce should have won instead, replied: "Tweet strong young man tweet strong!!!"

Mr Holmes's tweets, since amassing his new followers, have included: "If abuse is love then I've never felt more loved" and "feeling hungover and I wasn't even drunk last night".

Mr Holmes declined an interview with The Independent, telling the newspaper life had got "just too weird".

West, who has a new album coming out, has more than 370,000 followers, four days after joining Twitter.