Kanye West may feel like his voice isn’t being heard–but Russell Simmons hears him loud and clear.

The Def Jam Co-Founder penned an op-ed titled, “The Genius That Is Kanye West,” on Global Grind, where he spoke highly of the Chicago rapper.

Simmons feels West is misunderstood and believes West “desperately wants to leave his imprint in the history books.”

According to Simmons, West outbursts and rants are just passion, and not what many make it out to be: anger.

“He feels it. He tastes it. And he so badly wants it like mad. So, you may think he’s mad when he goes on his ‘Yeezy rants,’ but it is a different kind of mad,” he wrote. “It is a mad that keeps you up at night, knowing that if you fall asleep, you are wasting time. It is a mad that makes you go into the lab and work seven days with no sleep, cause you want to perfect your craft.”

West responded to the kind words of Simmons via Twitter.

“Thank you Russel (sic) for these kind insightful words, I appreciate your mentorship,” he tweeted to his million plus followers.

Read the op-ed in its entirety here.

-Chika Dunu