Rapper Kasper Knight shot himself in the face in the name of publicity

Rapper Kasper Knight shot himself for publicity. Photo / Kasper Knight Facebook

A US rapper literally shot himself in the face as a publicity stunt.

Kasper Knight, aka Kasper Tha Phantom, posted a video of the stunt to his Facebook page on Saturday and it has since been viewed more than one million times.

The video caption reads: "Plot twist: I shot myself in the face" before Knight goes on to explain that he had wanted to put the stunt in a music video but "no cameraman wanted to film it - so I did it myself since I felt like taking a bullet to the face".

He goes on to say: "this was really nothing...I've been shot a couple times before and this was like a four out of 10 on the pain scale after the initial impact...The last time that a bullet ricocheted through me it destroyed an organ and part of another."

He also took the opportunity to cash in on the attention by signing off with: "I'm answering all questions concerning my books, art gallery, and mediocre rap/rock videos".

Since the video went live, Knight has received backlash over the stunt, given the current climate in the US surrounding recent police shootings, mass shootings, and the argument over the gun control.

Knight responded to these issues on his Facebook page.

He wrote: "You guys are a mess. We got black people blaming my facial mutilation on whites, whites blaming it on blacks, conservatives blaming it on liberals, liberals blaming the gun, random f***s blaming it on Mexicans, and conspiracy theorists asking for proof even though we have a full blown unedited video on deck.

"We have people asking why when they already know the answer, average Joes pretending to be ballistic experts, and civilians attempting to quote law. We also have people throwing out terms like 'attention whore', while simultaneously giving this video attention.

"We got people making bold assumptions, prior service and current military talking s*** while expecting me to respect their alleged PTSD (I am also prior service military) and people with no actual jobs in the field of mental health attempting to diagnose or recommend a diagnosis.

"Congratulations Facebook World. You just played yourself."