The School of the Art Institute of Chicago conferred an honorary degree on the rap superstar on Monday, and duly "did a Kanye" with a bizarre acceptance speech.
Kanye West has shown that even college dropouts can become doctors. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago awarded the hip hop superstar an honorary doctorate on Monday afternoon.
Chicago’s DNAInfo first reported that 37 year old West was given the honour in recognition of his “transformative, genre-defying work”. Of course, such an occasion wouldn’t be complete without a memorable acceptance speech, and the rapper duly obliged.
Kanye West at the KIIS FM Wango Tango 2015
Describing what the honour meant to him, he said: “This honor is gonna make your lives easier,” he said modestly. “Two reasons: You don't have to defend me as much and I'm going to make all of our lives easier. And it's these Floyd Mayweather belts that are needed to prove what I've been saying my entire life.”
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“Whether it's the cosign of Paul McCartney grabbing me and saying, ‘It’s okay, he doesn't bite white people.’ Or The New York Times cover. Or the Time 'Most Influential' cover. And now, a doctorate at the Art Institute of Chicago.”
Kanye briefly attended the American Academy of Art and then Chicago State University in his hometown, before dropping out and becoming a producer and then a star in his own right.
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Continuing his speech, he said “When I was giving a lecture at Oxford, I brought up this school because when I went on that mission to create in other spaces - apparel, film, performance - it would have been easier if I could have said I had a degree at the Art Institute of Chicago.”
The Chicago Tribune reported that the SAIC decided to confer the honorary degree upon West partly because he had mentioned the faculty in public.
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