Jay-Z has broken his silence on the recent negative attention Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps has received since an image of him with a marijuana pipe emerged.
Day 26

In an interview with Cigar Aficionado magazine, Jay cited the media's lack of consideration for Phelps' age as a reason behind the controversy.

"You look at all these people who graduated from Princeton and Harvard, who are supposed to be pillars of the community -- every day [they're] in the newspaper arrested for some kind of financial fraud," Jay explained. "Then you look at someone like Michael Phelps. He's 23. What's he gonna do? He's a kid. He's going to experiment. They say there's no honor among thieves, that's not really true. When I was on the street . . . if you back on your word [out there], they don't take you to court. You can cause yourself some real problems. When I first came into the music business, I'd have these conversations with executives and we'd shake hands on something, and the next time I saw them they'd say, 'I never said that.' So I'd say there's no honor among businessmen." (Cigar Aficionado)

Phelps was blasted earlier this year due to the leaked image.

Michael Phelps was suspended from competition for three months by USA Swimming in the wake of the photo that showed the Olympic record-setting champion inhaling from a marijuana pipe. (Huffington Post)

The suspension was reportedly a "message" to Phelps for his past action.

"This is not a situation where any anti-doping rule was violated, but we decided to send a strong message to Michael because he disappointed so many people, particularly the hundreds of thousands of USA Swimming member kids who look up to him as a role model and a hero," the Colorado Springs-based federation said in a statement. (Associated Press)

Aside from showing his support for Phelps, Jay made recent headlines for inking a fragrance deal.

Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye West all got fragrance deals when Iconic Fragrances, LLC (where Jay-Z is a principal) signed an agreement with Parlux. Also part of the contract is the announcement of an upcoming scent with a "well-established female artist." Considering it's Jay-Z's deal and he's married to Beyonce, let's read between the lines on that one. (New York Magazine)