Jay-Z opens up about feud and 'underlying competition' with Kanye West: 'I'll always love the guy'

It was revealed earlier this week that Jay-Z finally admitted to cheating on wife Beyoncé in a very candid interview with the New York Times. In the same chat, he also opened up about his feud with former pal Kanye West.

The 47-year-old rapper – who was once West's boss at his record label Roc-A-Fella Records – has some bad blood with his ex-BFF following Kim Kardashian's husband's epic rant about him and Beyoncé at one of his concerts last November.

Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, didn't exactly help the pair's bruised friendship by writing some scathing lyrics on his latest album 4:44.

A line from Kill Jay-Z reads: "I know people backstab you, I feel bad too / But this 'f**k everybody' attitude ain't natural / But you ain't the same, this ain't KumbaYe".

Speaking to The NY Times' T Magazine executive editor Dean Baquet, Jay-Z said he will "always love the guy".

He said: "I [talked to] Kanye the other day, just to tell him, like, he's my brother. I love Kanye. I do.

"It's a complicated relationship with us. Kanye came into this business on my label. 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?" he added.

Jay-Z appears to be holding out an olive branch to West, who suffered a mental breakdown towards the end of last year.

Opening up more about the "complications" of their friendship, he said: "In the long relationship, you know, hopefully when we're 89 we look at this six months or whatever time and we laugh at that," he went on.

"There's gonna be complications in the relationship that we have to get through. And the only way to get through that is we sit down and have a dialogue and say, 'These are the things that I'm uncomfortable with. These are the things that are unacceptable to me. This is what I feel.'

"I'm sure he feels that I've done things to him as well. I'm not a perfect human being by no stretch."

Outspoken West left more than 13,000 fans bewildered and angry when he left his concert in Sacrameto, California after half an hour following an onstage rant about Jay-Z and Beyoncé.

He said: "Beyoncé, I was hurt cos heard that you said you wouldn't perform unless you won Video of the Year over me and over 'Hotline Bling.'

"In my opinion, now don't go trying to diss Beyoncé. She is great. Taylor Swift is great."

He continued: "I've been sitting here to give ya'll my truth even at the risk of my own life. Even at the risk of my own success, my own career. I've been sitting here to give ya'll the truth! Jay-Z, call me , bro! You still ain't calling me. Jay-Z, call me...Jay-Z, I know you got killers. Please don't send them at my head. Just call me. Talk to me like a man!"