Jay-Z has spoken for the first time about MC Hammer's new track 'Better Run Run', which pokes fun at the rapper.

The song, released online early this week, includes several lyrical references to Jay-Z, while the video boasts an apparent lookalike.

MC Hammer dropped the track after Jay-Z mocked him over the popularity of his hit 'U Can't Touch This' in a recent song with Kanye West.

But in an interview with BBC 1xtra, Jay-Z said the song had been taken the wrong way and that MC Hammer would be embarrassed when he reads the rapper's forthcoming memoirs, Decoded.

“I said some really great things of him in the book and people's perception of him and how he's from East Oakland,” he said.

“It is what it is. He took it the wrong way."

He also claimed that his lyric - "Hammer went broke so you know I'm more focused” - in West's song 'So Appalled' was not derogatory.

(by Jason Gregory)