J. Cole says Jay Z is ''like a Jedi''.

The 28-year-old rapper recently went to number one in the US with his second album, 'Born Sinner', and credits Jay Z - who signed him to his Roc Nation label - for much of his success.

He said: ''Our relationship is great, he's like a Jedi. He's outlasted all these other rappers and he's still on top.''

While J has major respect for Jay Z, he wasn't afraid to go up against his mentor's close pal Kanye West, and even moved the release date of 'Born Sinner' up so it clashed with Kanye's latest effort 'Yeezus'.

He told People magazine: ''I moved my album up to compete with Kanye to make a statement. The fact that three weeks after that I got a number one album was the icing on the cake. It felt good.''

J also invited TLC to collaborate on his record, because he was a huge fan of them when he was growing up.

He said: ''I missed them. I was a big TLC fan growing up. They had these huge hits that were positive like 'Waterfalls' and 'Unpretty'.''