Raggamuffin headliner Cee Lo Green sorry for rape tweets

Cee Lo Green. Photo / Getty Images

Cee Lo Green has apologised for controversial comments he made about rape on Twitter.

The comments were made in the aftermath of a 2014 court case in which Green was accused of spiking a woman's drink with the drug ecstasy in 2012 during a dinner date.

He was sentenced to three years of formal probation and ordered to complete 360 hours of community service, but avoided jail time after pleading no contest to drugs charges.

The Forget You singer is headlining the Ragamuffin festival in February, which is being promoted as a family friendly event.

He has since apologised for his comments on Twitter, in which he allegedly wrote, ""People who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!" and "If someone is passed out they're not even WITH you consciously! so WITH Implies consent."

The tweets were deleted shortly afterwards and Green's account was deactivated. During his first interview in three years, he told the Sunday Times his comments were "highly irresponsible".

"I do realise in retrospect that it was highly sensitive, what I tweeted - highly irresponsible," he said. "It did stem from emotion causing some involuntary action, and I do believe that, maybe just possibly, we could all give each other a margin for human error.

"And in those instances I do realise I'm an artist, that I'm flawed; and sometimes, you know, you don't think. I was most certainly not thinking, not considering whom I might offend. And to those many people, however many or however few, I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise again."

Green has a new album due out this year with production by Mark Ronson, Paul Epworth and Pharrell Williams. He said the album celebrated women and was nearly titled Girl Power.

"At one point it was called Girl Power, because it is all about the adornment, the upliftment, the exaltment and the appreciation of all things woman," he said.

One song has been released from the upcoming album - a tribute to the late actor and comedian Robin Williams.

- nzherald.co.nz