Jay-Z doesn’t think his protege, Kanye West, deserved to be vilified for ambushing Taylor Swift at Sunday night’s MTV VMAs.

“Of course it was rude because it was her moment, but that’s the way he really felt,” Jay-Z, 39, tells BBC Radio 1. West, 32, interrupted Swift’s speech for her best female video award to opine that Jay-Z’s wife, Beyonce, should have won for “Single Ladies.”

Jay-Z goes on on, “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.

Jay-Z admitted his pal’s actions were “inappropriate at the time,” but justifies the diss.

“He’s just a super-passionate person,” he said.

On Tuesday, Swift, 19, announced that she’d forgiven the rapper after he reached out to her.

“Kanye did call me, and he was very sincere in his apology, and I accepted that apology,” she told ABC News Radio.

Source, Bauer-Griffin