How to Respond to Tragedy 101: Lady Gaga Gets A+, 50 Cent Fails

"Paparazzi" singer among a number of musicians helping raise money for victims of Japan earthquake while hip-hopster offends with some stupid remarks

By Josh Grossberg Mar 14, 2011 3:36 PMTags
Lada GagaLester Cohen/WireImage.com

In the wake of disasters, some celebrities jump right in to help. Others suffer from momentary bouts of douchebaggery.

Today's case studies: Lady Gaga and 50 Cent.

When it came to the unfolding disaster in Japan, guess which one aced the social media test and which stuck his foot in his tweet hole?

Gaga immediately took to her site and Twitter to rally her Little Monsters. She asked them to pitch in by buying a wristband, with all proceeds going to victims of last Friday's devastating temblor, subsequent tsunami and now cascading nuclear crisis.

"I Designed a Japan Prayer Bracelet," tweeted Gaga to her 8 million followers. The bands, emblazoned with "We Pray for Japan," are going for $5 via her official store but buyers can also choose their price to add an additional donation.

She wasn't the only musician reaching out. Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda also tweeted he's designing a T-shirt with all sales going to benefit the victims and asked his followers to help choose a design, either a tee featuring an origami butterfly or another stamped with Japanese flag and the phrase "Not Alone."

Shinoda is also soliciting donations through the band's Music for Relief, an organization set up initially in 2005 to aid victims of the 2004 Indonesian earthquake and tsunami but which also has helped out with last year's flooding in Pakistan and earthquake in Haiti.

A slew of other celebs, including Conan O'Brien, Katy Perry, Ryan Seacrest, Diddy and Chris Brown, have also taken to Twitter and asked fans to give generously to the Red Cross.

Then there's Fiddy.

He sent out a number of missives making light of the Japan tragedy and the tsunami until he was ubraided by his fans.

"Wave will hit 8am them crazy white boys gonna try to go  surfing," he tweeted on Friday. "Look this is very serious people I had to evacuate all my hoe's from LA, Hawaii and Japan.  I had to do it. Lol."

Fiddy later clarified his intent and offered a separate post in which he wrote, "Lets pray for anyone who has lost someone."

"Some of my tweets are ignorant I do it for shock value," he added. "Hate it or love it. I'm cool either way."

We're pretty sure if he has any fans left in Japan, they might beg to differ.