Kanye West Receives Honorary Doctorate

Kanye West received an honorary doctoral degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago at its annual commencement on Monday, May 11. Kanye was honored for his "transformative, genre-defying work." His mother was the Chair of English Department at Chicago State University. 

In his acceptance speech, the "Stronger" rapper described what the honor meant to him. "This honor is gonna make your lives easier," he told the audience, "Two reasons; you don't have to defend me as much and, I'm gonna 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." 

He added, "Where there's the co-sign of Paul McCartney grabbing me, and saying 'It's OK, 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, 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 that I had a degree at the Art Institute of Chicago." 

Kanye admitted to being nervous at the ceremony. "I felt my nerves a bit and I don't feel that feeling a lot," he shared, "The nerves of humility and modesty when being honored, a humanization, a reality, of being recognized, and all I thought as I sit here kinda shaking a little bit, is, I need to get rid of that feeling! I need to not be nervous." 

He told the audiences, "I am a pop artist. So my medium is public opinion and the world is my canvas. 'I'm sorry' is something that you can use a lot, it gives you the opportunity to give your opinion, apologize for it, and give you opinion again. You should not be sorry for your opinions! George Bush, has some very cool self-portraits. I didn't know he was an artist." 

Lisa Wainwright, dean of faculty and vice president of academic administration at SAIC, said she had decided to honor Kanye after reading an interview in which he said he would love to attend the school. "I read it and thought, 'Wow, this is a fantastic moment,' " she shared, "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."