Jay-Z has defended Kanye West’s behavior at the MTV Video Music Awards.

The “Love Lockdown” star has come under fire for storming the stage when Taylor Swift was accepting her Best Female Video prize, but his mentor insists the incident has been blown out of proportion.

“Kanye is like my little brother he’s just a super-passionate person. Of course it was rude because it was her moment, but that’s what he believed. I think it’s been blown out of proportion, he didn’t kill anybody, no one got harmed,” he said. “I think he’s passionate and he needs to watch that. At the end of the day, we’ll celebrate him for his passion rather than vilify him, because the thing which causes him to make great records is what also makes him step out of line. He was inappropriate, it wasn’t fair to Taylor at all. Move on. But I don’t think he should lay low.”

Jay-Z also revealed this isn’t the first time he has had to ask Kanye to keep his passion in check. “He’s very intelligent and he’s been that passionate from his first record, he used to jump on the table when we were recording the first Blueprint album and I’d be like, ‘Yo, this is not the time for that,’” he added to Britain’s Radio 1. “If he had changed since his first record, it would be different but he’s always been like that.”

Kanye recently performed “Run This Town” with Jay-Z and Rihanna on the premiere of The Jay Leno Show (right after issuing his third apology to Taylor Swift.) You can watch that group performance below.