Kanye West has claimed his treatment of Taylor Swift made her more famous.

While the controversial rapper admitted his behavior - when he stormed on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards during Taylor's Best Female Video acceptance speech and ranted that Beyonce Knowles should have won - was unacceptable, he claimed it helped make the country singer even more popular.

He said: "I feel like when Taylor was getting all those magazine covers, she was all good then.

"I feel completely empathetic and sympathize with that moment of her feeling bad, that spawned her to have one million magazine covers and be the most popular artist in the world, but in that moment of her feeling bad, I do feel bad about being the cause of that."

Although the 'Stronger' hitmaker apologized to the 20-year-old songstress, he claimed interruptions at awards shows happen all the time.

Speaking on US radio show 'Mojo in the Morning' he said: "When I talked to Taylor I asked her, 'What do you feel?'...and I said we know I was rude, I'm sorry, I cut you off. Awards shows play music...they cut people off all the time.'"

The 33-year-old star - who took an extended break from music after the incident - revealed he now hopes to move on and focus on his career.

He explained: "Personally, I'm better than I've ever been. I'm patching up my public image and where I am as an artist and where people perceive me."