Kanye West may have dropped out of school at 20 years old, however he is currently a pleased proprietor of a PhD.
The rapper got an honorary doctorate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) for his “transformative, genre-defying work”, DNAinfo reports. In his acceptance speech, Kanye concedes what this honor means to him;
“This honor is gonna make your lives easier,” the rapper said. “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. 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.”
“When I was giving a lecture at Oxford,” Kanye added, “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.” Lisa Wainwright, dean of faculty, explained that the faculty had decided to give West the honorary degree after he publicly mentioned the school. “I read it and thought, ‘Wow, this is a fantastic moment.’ Here is this major figure in the cultural landscape promoting art school, this guy from Chicago saying art school is cool. So we thought, ‘This man deserves an honorary doctorate from us!’ He should have gone here,” said Wainwright.
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