Nicki Minaj says Kanye West is ''the king''.

The 32-year-old rapper featured on the track 'Monster' alongside Jay Z on Kanye's fifth solo studio album 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy', and has praised him for letting her rap on the song because it helped to give her a platform.

She said: ''It's sort of amazing but I keep saying that, Kanye, he gave me an amazing opportunity and because of that I feel like he outshines everyone. He puts people in a position to do better.''

The 'Anaconda' hitmaker has since released three studio albums but still has a lot of respect for the 37-year-old musician because he is ''selfless'' when it comes to helping to promote new artists.

She told Capital FM: ''When you are an artist and you can do that for people then you are the king, you are the one, and that's how I look at him.

''He did it in a really selfless way, he didn't have anything to gain from it. And that's what I've always respected and loved him for.''

The praise comes just days after the 'Only One' singer spoke about their collaboration during a talk at the University of Oxford in England, joking she ''kicked [his] ass'' on the track.

He said: ''One of the most memorable things about 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' was Nicki Minaj, and the fact that she kicked my ass, on my own song, on one of the best albums...the best album - I'm just saying what the critics said - of the last 25 years. The best album of the past 25 years that I spent a year and a half making, out there. I was exiled from my country, it was a personal exile, but exile. To come back and deliver my magnum opus of a work, and to be outshined...to be beat by a girl, basically.''