Rapper Lil' Wayne has taken aim at comeback king Jay-Z after the no-longer-retired mogul's claims he is the saviour of hip-hop offended him. Wayne - real name Dwayne Michael Carter - is thrilled Jay-Z has ended his retirement with a chart-topping new album, Kingdom Come, but he insists the Def Jam president shouldn't be making claims he's single-handedly saving the genre.

Speaking in the new issue of urban magazine Complex, the 24-year-old states, "I don't like what he's saying about how he had to come back because hip-hop's dead and we need him. "What the f**k do you mean? If anything, it's reborn, so he's probably having a problem with that. You left on a good note, and all of the artists were saying, 'Yo, this is Jay's house. He's the best.' Now he comes back and still thinks it's his house. "It's not your house anymore, and I'm better than you." Jay-Z insists Lil Wayne may have taken his 'saviour of hip-hop' comments too far. He says, "When I say 'saving hip-hop', I don't mean, like, I'm standing on a mountain saving hip-hop. I mean, hip-hop needs events, it needs certain things to happen at certain times, like a spark of energy."