Rapper Kanye West has denied he has turned his back on rap for good - insisting he will always be a hip-hop performer.

The Stronger hit-maker has opted for a new sound on his latest record, 808s and Heartbreak, singing on the tracks instead of rapping. And he was recently quoted as announcing he has finished with the genre, saying, "Hip-hop is over for me. I sing, not rap, on this album. I now want to be grouped among those musicians you see in those old black-and-white photos - the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles."

However West insists that his comments don't mean that he will be giving up rap - because the genre is so close to his heart.

He writes on his official blog, "I never said, 'Hip hop is over!' I perform hip hop every day of my life. Some paper out of the UK ran that as a quote. I'm in New Zealand and people have been asking me about it. I've done a hundred shows this year. Yo bottom line is I work. I work to death and people try to find negativity in the positive energy I put out. The almost superhuman amount of work I put out. People really have there (sic) feathers ruffled about this album don't they? Good!"

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(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)