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    Obama says Kanye West is ‘very talented’ but still a ‘jackass’

    By | The Ticket – Thu, Apr 12, 2012

    Kanye West and Taylor Swift (Jason DeCrow/AP)

    President Barack Obama has told The Atlantic he prefers Jay-Z over Kanye West, who he called "very talented" but still a "jackass."

    Obama memorably dubbed West a jackass in September 2009 after the hip-hop superstar's notorious and rambling interruption of Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at that year's MTV Video Music Awards.

    "I like Kanye," Obama told The Atlantic's David Samuels at a political fundraiser in New York City. "He's a Chicago guy. Smart. He's very talented."

    "Even though you called him a jackass?" Samuels asked.

    "He is a jackass," Obama replied. "But he's talented."

    The president has previously said that he has Jay-Z on his iPod, as well as Frank Sinatra and opera legend Maria Callas. But no Justin Bieber.

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