Kanye West’s latest award announcement is proof that the Chicago native is far from your average college dropout.
In an interview with Clique, Mr. West announced that he will receive an honorary doctorate degree from the Art Institute of Chicago on May 5.
“I was a gifted artist since age five and won national competitions and went to art school,” West said in the interview.
The 37-year-old briefly attended the American Academy of Art and Chicago State University — where his mother served as a professor — before dropping out to pursue his music career at age 20. In 2004 he released his debut album, The College Dropout, with his subsequent two albums also having school-themed titles including Late Registration and Graduation.
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Earlier this month, the Grammy award-winning artist gave a grand lecture to the Oxford Guild Society at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History where he talked about his aspirations to become not just any artists, but ‘Picasso or greater’ and how he regrets not attending the Art Institute.
“If I could have done it again, I would have gone to the Art Institute over the American Academy,” Daily Mail reports Mr. West saying.
With seven studio albums under his belt, West is expected to drop his eighth album later this year titled So Help Me God.