Jay-Z Defends Kanye West: ‘It Was Absolutely An Honest Emotion’

During a wide-ranging Howard Stern interview that touched on Jay-Z’s rough upbringing in the Marcy Projects, the first time he met Rihanna, his relationship with President Obama and his strained connection with his late father, Jay also weighed in on the recently renewed interest in Kanye West’s comments about former President George W. Bush.

“It’s bittersweet in a lot of ways,” he said about the impact on his business of West’s decision to protest Swift’s win over Beyoncé at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. “If we look back, everyone would agree that he was right. It was bad timing. It was not her fault. It’s not Taylor Swift’s fault. She didn’t nominate … she didn’t elect herself. She just sat there and she had a dream and she’s seeing that dream being realized, and he had the same dream, so he realizes that now. He was fighting for the integrity of the award, and he knows how hard he works on his videos. It was bad timing, but we agreed.”

And Jigga said ‘Ye had the right intentions when he made his famous remark about President Bush during the 2005 Hurricane Katrina relief telethon. “It was bad timing, but it was absolutely an honest emotion,” he said. “We all felt like that. We didn’t feel like Katrina was a natural disaster. We felt like it as an attack on black people. All you saw was black people on the roof with help signs. … White people felt like that.”

Read entire article at MTV.com