President Obama prefers rapper Jay-Z to Kanye West, saying that though West is “very talented,” he still thinks the entertainer is a jackass.
Obama told The Atlantic‘s David Samuels “I like Kanye … He’s a Chicago guy. Smart. He’s very talented,” at a New York fundraiser in January, in an article published Thursday.
But Samuels reminded Obama of his comments from 2009, when the president called the rapper a jackass for interrupting singer Taylor Swift’s speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
Obama made the slam against West in off-the-record comments during an interview in August 2009, leaked by an ABC News reporter.
“He is a jackass,” Obama said when asked by Samuels of his previous critique of West, but conceded “he’s talented.”
Obama has said he listens to Jay-Z on his iPod and the superstar’s wife Beyonce sang for the Obamas’ first dance at an inaugural ball.
Beyonce, who gave birth to her first child with Jay-Z this January, has supported Michelle Obama’s campaign against childhood obesity and attended an Obama fundraiser in New York with the first lady on March 19.