Kanye West kanyeyay.jpg

We all know Kanye's got an amazing ego, but this recent statement of his takes the cake!

The Grammy winner called himself "the voice of this generation" in an interview Wednesday, according to the AP (via Yahoo's OMG). Here's exactly what he said:

    "I realize that my place and position in history is that I will go down as the voice of this generation, of this decade, I will be the loudest voice ... It's me settling into that position of just really accepting that it's one thing to say you want to do it and it's another thing to really end up being like Michael Jordan."


But while he congratulated himself, he totally dissed Justin Timberlake -- or gave him a back-handed compliment, at least -- by saying JT had a chance at being "the voice" but that he missed his chance:

    "There were people who had the potential to do it but they went on vacation, so when Justin went on vacation I made albums. And it just came out to be that."


Note, Justin's last album was in 2006, which Kanye put out a CD last year and is releasing 808s and Heartbreak on Nov. 24th.

Click through to see what Kanye said about his mother Donda West's death last November ...