Rapper Ne-Yo became a dad for the third time this week, and in a novel move he announced the birth via Snapchat.

Despite having 1.7m followers on Instagram and six times that amount on Twitter, the proud dad chose the picture-and-video sharing app to reveal his third child had arrived.

The photo, which shows his wife Crystal Renay holding her new son's tiny hand, was captioned "Prince SJ has arrived."

While we wouldn't put it past the rapper to have given his son a name like "Prince," it could just as easily be an affectionate nickname. There's no official confirmation of a name just yet, but many media outlets are speculating that it could be Shaffer Junior (SJ), in honour of Ne-Yo's real name, Shaffer Chimere Smith.

The rapper couldn't hide his excitement as his wife's due date approached, telling fans he was holding off on starting new music until after the birth.

Celeb Instagram account The Shade Room NYC also posted this (possibly leaked) photo, showing a smiling Crystal kissing her son on the head:

 

A photo posted by The Shade Room (@theshaderoominc) on

This is the first child for Ne-Yo and Crystal, who married just last month at a beach resort just outside of LA. However the rapper is no stranger to fatherhood –  he also has daughter Madilyn Grace, five, and four-year-old son Mason Evan from a previous relationship.

"We can't wait to start our life together," Ne-Yo told People magazine of the couple's future plans.

"We're looking forward to just being each others' best friend."