--- description: On Monday, Kanye West received an honorary doctorate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. title: Listen to Kanye West's Acceptance Speech at SAIC image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64135efb73fa8e59/6987ef5855a8591430a8a0ed/rtx1cicf.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Listen to Kanye West's Honorary Doctorate Acceptance Speech at SAIC ## Video: Kim & Kanye’s Relationship From Flirtation To Family [Watch (HLS stream): Kim & Kanye’s Relationship From Flirtation To Family](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qAsmAbEJ.m3u8) (2:36)  _Published 2014-05-22. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West will soon be “Mr. and Mrs.,” but before they’re bound for life, here’s a rundown of how they went from flirtation to family._ by [Sabrina Toppa](/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 12, 2015 4:00 AM CUT  Musician Kanye West and School of the Art Institute of Chicago Professor Nick Cave attend the school's annual commencement ceremony where West received an honorary doctorate degree in Chicago, Illinois on May 11, 2015 Musician Kanye West and School of the Art Institute of Chicago Professor Nick Cave attend the school's annual commencement ceremony where West received an honorary doctorate degree in Chicago, Illinois on May 11, 2015Jim Young—Reuters by [Sabrina Toppa](/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 12, 2015 4:00 AM CUT On Monday, celebrated college drop-out Kanye West [collected](http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/05/11/kanye%5Fwest%5Fgives%5Fgraduation%5Fspeech%5Fat%5Fart%5Finstitute%5Fof%5Fchicago%5Fthe%5Frapper.html?wpsrc=fol%5Ftw "undefined") an honorary doctorate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where a rapt audience [listened](http://www.complex.com/style/2015/05/kanye-west-saic-lecture-transcript "undefined") to the Chicago native’s expansive speech covering everything from George W. Bush’s self-portraits to his [TIME 100 cover](http://time.com/3822841/kanye-west-2015-time-100/ "undefined"). West — who briefly attended Chicago’s American Academy of Art and Chicago State University, but dropped out to pursue music — labeled the accolade a “humanization” and a “recognition.” “When I was giving a lecture at Oxford, I brought up this school because when I went out on that mission to create other spaces — apparel, film, performance — it would’ve been easier if I could have said I had a degree at the Art Institute of Chicago,” he said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3854985/kanye-west-honorary-doctorate-acceptance-speech-saic/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3854985/kanye-west-honorary-doctorate-acceptance-speech-saic/"},"headline":"Listen to Kanye West's Honorary Doctorate Acceptance Speech at SAIC","datePublished":"2015-05-12T04:00:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:25:30.315Z","description":"The College Dropout makes good","url":"https://time.com/3854985/kanye-west-honorary-doctorate-acceptance-speech-saic/","keywords":["celebrities","Music","Kanye West"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64135efb73fa8e59/6987ef5855a8591430a8a0ed/rtx1cicf.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sabrina Toppa","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64135efb73fa8e59/6987ef5855a8591430a8a0ed/rtx1cicf.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Musician Kanye West and School of the Art Institute of Chicago Professor Nick Cave attend the school's annual commencement ceremony where West received an honorary doctorate degree in Chicago, Illinois on May 11, 2015","caption":"Musician Kanye West and School of the Art Institute of Chicago Professor Nick Cave attend the school's annual commencement ceremony where West received an honorary doctorate degree in Chicago, Illinois on May 11, 2015","creditText":"Jim Young—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3854985/kanye-west-honorary-doctorate-acceptance-speech-saic/","name":"Listen to Kanye West's Honorary Doctorate Acceptance Speech at SAIC"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Kim & Kanye’s Relationship From Flirtation To Family","description":"Kim Kardashian and Kanye West will soon be “Mr. and Mrs.,” but before they’re bound for life, here’s a rundown of how they went from flirtation to family.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/qAsmAbEJ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-05-22T18:03:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qAsmAbEJ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3854985/kanye-west-honorary-doctorate-acceptance-speech-saic/","duration":"PT2M36S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3854985/kanye-west-honorary-doctorate-acceptance-speech-saic/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```