Jay-Z

Kanye West is receiving support from Jay-Z concerning controversial comments West made during an appearance on last Friday's NBC telethon to for Hurricane Katrina victims.

In response to West's outburst that "George Bush doesn't care about black people," Jay-Z told Billboard by phone that he is "backing Kanye 100 per cent."

"This is America. You should be able to say what you want to say. We have freedom of speech," Jay-Z said from London.

Jay-Z also said that he wants to join forces with Sean "Diddy" Combs to start a fund to help blacks in times of need, a thing West also said during the telethon was something America did "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible."

"Just in case anything like this happens in the future, we can do what the elder Bush and (former President Bill) Clinton are doing for our people specifically."