Kanye West Gives Graduation Speech After Receiving Honorary Doctoral Degree In Chicago

Kanye West has gone from college dropout to Ph.D.

The rapper was given an honorary doctoral degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on Monday, a moment that would have made his late mother Dr. Dondra West, an English Department Chair at Chicago State University, proud.

The now Dr. Kanye West also gave remarks at the ceremony after he walked across the stage with students and received his diploma and hood.

"I am a pop artist. So my medium is public opinion and the world is my canvas," the performer said to the crowd of students.

"'I'm sorry" is something that you can use a lot," he continued. "It gives you the opportunity to give your opinion, apologize for it, and give your opinion again. You should not be sorry for your opinions!"

Later, in a lighter moment, the rapper drew laughs and applause when he quipped, "George Bush ... has some very cool self-portraits."

The joke was a reference to a comment West made on national television following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that the former President didn't "care about black people."

The rapper also took the opportunity to mention some of his high achievements to the crowd, but also addressed the fact that with a degree behind him some of his prior projects would have been made a lot easier.

"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," he explained.

This was the first time the artist has received a degree from a university, although not the first time he's attended college.

He was a student at the American Academy of Art and Chicago State University, before officially dropping out at age 20 and launching his career in music.

Lisa Wainwright, dean of faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, explained they chose West to receive the honorary degree after reading an article where he said he wished he had attended 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," she told the Chicago Tribune.

That's Dr. West to you ….

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