Jack Black Says People Should Leave Kanye West Alone

You might think Kanye West is an asshole. You find him brash, arrogant, not as humble as the rock stars you prefer. That's fine, says Jack Black--just so long as you recognize his talent. Last night (July 13), the revered comic took to Conan to promote his new HBO series, The Brink. But just as your cookouts and phone calls with friends and work luncheons are bound to do, the conversation turned to a certain talented rapper from Chicago. "It feels like everyone is really mean to Kanye West," he says, pointing out that writing off Kanye as a poorly-behaved crybaby has "become the popular thing to." "I do agree that he is an asshole," Black cracks, "but I don't agree that he's not talented--he actually is really talented." The School of Rock star goes on to say that West's divisive 2013 LP, Yeezus, is "like, the best album out there."

Kanye started the year off with a bang, dropping the Paul McCartney-featuring "Only One" on New Year's Eve. The tender ode to his daughter, mother and grandmother started the hype machine in motion; when West again teamed up with Macca on the Rihanna-led "FourFiveSeconds," an album seemed imminent. But after the Theophilus London- and Allan Kingdom-featuring "All Day" was premiered at the Brit Awards, the College Dropout went mostly silent. He and his wife, Kim Kardashian, are expecting their second child this far, and Kim has confirmed on Twitter that the child will be a boy. Their daughter, North, turned 2 years old last month.