//Jay-Z Says He Didn’t Block Chris Brown From BET Awards; Talks New Single With Kanye West And Rihanna//

Jay-Z is a lot of things — a business man, a multi-platinum rapper, a man with an incredibly successful wife — but he is not the guy who stopped Chris Brown from performing at this year’s BET Awards.

Several media outlets and sources close to Brown confirmed he was meant to perform a tribute to Michael Jackson on the awards show that aired June 28, but as the night went on CB was noticeably absent from the stage. Though Brown’s record label and BET execs deny the 20-year-old singer was ever confirmed to perform, a nasty rumor that Jay-Z, still upset that Brown had beaten his protege Rihanna months earlier, got Brown pulled from the lineup.

Rappers Juelz Santana, The Game, and former business partner Dame Dash even commented on the controversy, calling it a “sucker move” on Jay’s part. Now, Jay is finally clearing the air.

“That’s the silliest rumor I’ve ever heard,” he told BBC Radio 1’s Tim Westwood today (July 22) in an interview. “That’s not even my style. If I got a problem with Chris Brown, I got a problem with Chris Brown.”

He insists he hasn’t said anything “live or behind the scenes” to make anyone believe he actually has a problem with Brown. “I don’t agree with what he did and that’s it. That’s it. That’s the end of it. But as far as not letting him perform on the BET [awards], that’s just ridiculous. That’s stupid. That’s a sucker move and I wouldn’t do it.”

Jay says he has no idea where the rumor came from and that the people commenting on the situation made “fools of themselves.”

Jay’s most pressing concern is the release of the first official single from his upcoming Blueprint 3 album, the Kanye West and Rihanna-featured “Run This Town,” hitting radio this Friday. He even offered listeners an in-studio preview by rapping a bit.

Click here to listen to the interview.

photo: wireimage

Tweet This Buzz This Delicious Digg This Facebook Reddit Stumble This