Listen to Kanye West's Honorary Doctorate Acceptance Speech at SAIC

On Monday, celebrated college drop-out Kanye West collected an honorary doctorate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where a rapt audience listened to the Chicago native’s expansive speech covering everything from George W. Bush’s self-portraits to his TIME 100 cover.

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.

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