J. Cole: Eminem makes me giddy

J. Cole finds it "silly" that he's such an Eminem fan.

The American hip-hop artist released his third studio album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, earlier this week and is busy promoting his new music in the lead up to Christmas.

When he stopped by Power 105.1 to talk to host Angie Martinez, J. shared his top five MCs of all time.

"It probably changes all the time... I wanna say [André 3000] so bad, but Eminem is like solo dolo," the musician explained.

"André's incredible, but he'll tell you himself, he was in a duo [OutKast] so his workload was a little less, but creatively he's miles beyond.

"It's silly how big of an Eminem fan I am. It was a very select group of top notch people that I worship and Eminem was literally at the top of that list."

The Slim Shady rapper was a big inspiration for J. when he was starting out. However, many have been quick to comment on the lyrics to J.'s track Fire Squad, which was leaked last week and gives the impression he is insulting Eminem.

"History repeats itself and that's just how it goes / Same way that these rappers always bite each other's flows / Same thing that my n***a Elvis did with rock 'n' roll / Justin Timberlake, Eminem, and then Macklemore," he raps.

But J. insists it isn't the case and his words have been twisted to give a false idea.

"My first song sounded like an Eminem bite. If you think I'm dissing Eminem, I know you just read the headline, or you're listening to the song with the headline in mind," J. insisted.

"That headline that you saw, it's not the truth. It's a perspective that someone took and tried to give you the most enticing headline. Why? So they can make money. No disrespect; this whole system is not set up to bring truth. It's not set up to bring the real news. The news isn't set up to inform you. It's set up to make money."