Kanye West On MTV's Hottest MCs List: 'I Gave Sway His First TV'

Kanye Slams MTV's List

West was ranked No. 7 on the list, falling behind Big Sean (6), Drake (5) and the yet-to-be-announced top four rappers. This year's list is the network's eighth stab at providing a definitive list for rap fans. In what can't fairly be called a "rant" ('Ye remained calm for the duration of the call), West said Lil' Wayne should top the list and explained his issues with the rankings:

"I feel like for them to put me at No. 7, they had to bring up things they didn't like, like they didn't like 'Cruel Summer' album. And I'm like, 'That's a compilation. It's not all rappers on [the album].' I mean, 'Cruel Summer' has 'Don't Like (Remix),' 'New God Flow,' 'Mercy,' 'Cold' ... you know? ... And 'Clique!' You can't name five records like that on an album. But they want to diss me and be like, 'He did Cruel Summer and he can't say he's not part of it because he's on eight records.' Ain't nobody bringing up that 'Diamonds (Remix)' verse. There ain't no verse in a year that's f--king with that verse!

It's definitely not about a body of work. Possibly it could be about overall MC, rap swag. Sean is a great rapper, period. It checks all the boxes. What happens with these type of things and the people that review it, when I come in and I have the pink Polo and the backpack, I'm checking all the boxes of that A Tribe Called Quest era and all that, so they want to champion it. They don't like Givenchy Kanye. They don't like Kanye in a kilt, they don't like Kanye in a relationship."

Quick explainer: West's G.O.O.D. Music compilation album, "Cruel Summer," debuted to lukewarm to cold reviews, despite carrying the heavy impact singles he mentions above. West also apparently thinks his verse on the remix of Rihanna's "Diamonds" should have boosted his standing. He also repeats a previous claim that the press has turned on him because he has stopped dressing the part of a neat and friendly rapper, moving instead toward high-fashion interests and a relationship with Kim Kardashian.

But he wasn't done there, saying that the MTV list can't have been based on a "bar-for-bar" look at rap. "I said, 'Lucky I ain't have Jay drop him from the team,'" West said, referencing his "Cold" dig at Kardashian's ex Kris Humphries, who plays for the Brooklyn Nets, a team of which Jay-Z is a part owner. "Ain't no bar -- ain't no bar of the past 12 months that's hotter than that bar. That's one bar -- I come from this battle rap, that's how I grew up in Chicago."

Before he hung up, West told the amazing story of how he gave MTV's Sway "his first TV." "Really, I didn't really want to call and talk about the No. 7 list, I just wanted to tell everyone I gave Sway his first TV," West said. "And he needs to remember that." *click*.

And this concludes another edition of Kanye Reacts To Not Being Named The Best.

MTV's RapFix editor, Rob Markman, didn't seem to mind 'Ye's criticism:

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