Obama Weighs in: Kanye or Jay-Z?

President Obama weighed in on a very important national issue recently: Kanye West or Jay-Z? Turns out the prez prefers Jay-Z, he tells David Samuels. "Although I like Kanye," Obama continues. "He’s a Chicago guy. Smart. He’s very talented." When Samuels points out that Obama once called Kanye a jackass, the president responds, "He is a jackass. But he’s talented."

The anecdote opens up Samuels' nearly 8,000-word profile of West in the Atlantic, and Samuels delves a little deeper into Obama's Jay-Z preference. "Jay-Z is about control," he writes. "Jay-Z is about success. He’s a natural-born leader. … Jay-Z fills arenas and enunciates clearly—unlike Kanye West, who jumps onstage and interrupts during award ceremonies, cries on talk shows, and jets off to Rome to apprentice with the House of Fendi." Click for the full profile. (More Kanye West stories.)