Kanye West receives honorary doctorate from Chicago Art Institute

Rapper Kanye West pick up his honorary degree from The School At The Art Institute Of Chicago

The rapper has become Dr West, thanks to an honorary degree from the prestigious School At The Art Institute Of Chicago.

_{West said he was thrilled to have been recognised by the prestigious school (Reuters)}

In awarding the honour, the Institute's President Walter Massey praised West's "transformative, genre-defining work across music, performance, film and fashion design".

"Your visionary and ambitious career is a true reflection of the creative spirit," he added.

Kanye, whose arrogance has become something of a trademark, appeared genuinely nervous and humbled as he accepted the doctorate.

"I am a pop artist, so my medium is public opinion and the world is my canvas," he said.

"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... it would have been easier if I could have said that I had a degree at the Art Institute of Chicago!"

_{Kanye West is now an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts (Reuters)}

Kanye is not the first Dr West in his family: his late mother, Dr Donda West, was a Professor of English at Clark Atlanta University, and then the Chair of the English Department at Chicago State University.

She died in November 2007, but the rapper's wife, Kim Kardashian, took to Twitter after Monday's ceremony to tell her husband how proud his mother would have been.