<p id=”par-1_52″><a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/kanye-west/?swcfpc=1″>Kanye West</a> and <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/jay-z/?swcfpc=1″>Jay-Z</a> have been friends for years. They have had their ups and downs — during one tour, West frequently called out Jay-Z onstage — but they view each other as brothers. Still, Jay-Z has criticized some of West’s behavior. He once shared why he thought West’s outbursts were unnecessary.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-jay-z-shared-what-he-thought-about-kanye-west-s-outbursts”>Jay-Z shared what he thought about Kanye West’s outbursts</h2>
<p id=”par-2_19″>Jay-Z met West <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/kanye-west-1st-grammy-winning-song-involved-jay-z-roundabout-way.html/”>early in his career</a>. He said he identified West as a genius before practically anybody else.</p>
<p id=”par-3_36″>“For me, [genius means] coming up with something so different and so full of emotion and truth,” he told <a target=”_blank” href=”https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jay-z-the-rolling-stone-interview-172738/4/” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Rolling Stone</a> in 2007. “Kanye — I think I was the first to brand him a genius.”</p>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-1″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kanye-West-Jay-Z-2.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”Kanye West and Jay-Z stand together. West wears a white shirt and Jay-Z wears a gray suit. They laugh.” class=”wp-image-3752787″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Kanye West and Jay-Z | Johnny Nunez/WireImage</figcaption></figure>
<p id=”par-4_15″>He believed that some of West’s more outlandish behavior was a result of his passion.</p>
<p id=”par-5_10″>“He has extra passion – an extra-passion switch!” he said. </p>
<p id=”par-6_25″>Still, he thinks that some of his behavior took things too far. Jay-Z thought West was too successful to be acting the way he did.</p>
<p id=”par-7_53″>“Some of the things he says, it’s unnecessary because of the level of success he’s attained,” he said. “But I know where he’s coming from. He’s fought all his life to tell people, ‘I’m great,’ so in his mind he’s still in that fight. He wants to be the best in the world.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-jay-z-admitted-he-had-a-complicated-relationship-with-kanye-west”>Jay-Z admitted he had a complicated relationship with Kanye West</h2>
<p id=”par-8_36″>In more recent years, West and Jay-Z’s relationship has grown rocky. During concerts during his <em>Life of Pablo</em> tour, West went on <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/kanye-west-begged-jay-z-send-killers.html/”>rants about Jay-Z</a> to his audiences. Jay-Z spoke about the state of their relationship.</p>
<p id=”par-9_37″>“I [talked to] Kanye the other day, just to tell him, like, he’s my brother,” he told <a target=”_blank” href=”https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/29/t-magazine/jay-z-dean-baquet-interview.html?_r=0″ rel=”noreferrer noopener”>The New York Times Style Magazine</a> in 2017, adding, “I love Kanye. I do. It’s a complicated relationship with us.”</p>
<p id=”par-10_14″>He said they had a rivalry, but he thought of West as his brother.</p>
<p id=”par-11_85″>“Kanye came into this business on my label,” he said. “So I’ve always been like his big brother. And we’re both entertainers. It’s always been like a little underlying competition with your big brother. And we both love and respect each other’s art, too. So it’s like, we both — everyone wants to be the greatest in the world. You know what I’m saying? And then there’s like a lot of other factors that play in it. But it’s gonna, we gonna always be good.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-he-defended-the-rapper-after-he-interrupted-taylor-swift-at-the-vmas”>He defended the rapper after he interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMAs</h2>
<p id=”par-12_54″>While Jay-Z said West could take things too far, he once defended one of his most notorious moments. In 2009, <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/taylor-swift-wrote-song-kanye-west-interrupted.html/”>West interrupted Taylor Swift</a> while she gave her VMA acceptance speech. Jay-Z later spoke <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/jay-z-actually-defended-kanye-west-after-the-infamous-taylor-swift-controversy.html/”>in defense of West</a>. He acknowledged that the interruption was “rude” and “inappropriate,” but he thought the reaction was overblown.</p>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-2″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kanye-Taylor-Swift.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”Kanye West wears a black shirt and sunglasses and talks into a microphone. Taylor Swift stands next to him in a dress, holding a VMA.” class=”wp-image-3755045″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Kanye West and Taylor Swift | Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic</figcaption></figure>
<div class=”related-article related-article–simple”>
<span class=”related-article-flag”>Related</span>
<p class=”related-article__title”>
<a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/jay-zs-friend-seen-fall-hard-beyonce.html/”>
Jay-Z’s Friend Had ‘Never’ Seen Him Fall for Someone as Hard as He Did for Beyoncé </a>
</p>
</div>
<p id=”par-13_48″>“Of course it was rude because it was her moment but that’s the way he really felt,” he told the <a target=”_blank” href=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/entertainment/newsid_8263000/8263005.stm” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>BBC</a>. “I think it was rude but the way they’re treating him … He’s on the cover of every paper. He didn’t kill anybody. No one got harmed.”</p>