Kanye West has a lot to say. This can be exemplified by the long rants the rapper is prone to giving the audience during one of his lavish performances. However, until now, few reputable institutions were willing to listen to Ye's message. This appears to have changed, as a bastion on academia and intellectual progress--Oxford University-- invited the rapper/producer to lecture to students at the Oxford Guild Business Society. This is fitting given Kanye's massive economic success. Thus, it's fair to say the lecture was a triumph for everyone involved.
Kanye began his speech with a demand. He told the audience, "OK, everyone please be completely quiet, because I can literally hear a whisper, and it'll throw off my stream of consciousness, and when I get my stream of consciousness going that's when I give the best, illest quotes."
It was clear, from that point on, that this would be a memorable lecture.
One important lesson from the millionaire rapper/producer/fashion designer is that material possession will on, in and of themselves, bring happiness.
"It feels like people do everything in life to get this BMW, this Benz, to get this townhome, to get 2.5 kids exactly," he told the audience. "One of them has to be small, y'know! And you're looking for this moment where you sit in your BMW after all the work you've done and all the accolades you get, and you somehow think you're gonna get that level of joy that my daughter had when she received those [toy] wolves [from artist Vanessa Beecroft]. And when you're sitting in traffic in your BMW, it's something that feels empty. To everyone who reaches that point. This concept of the selfish human, this idea of separation by race, or gender, or religion, or age, or my favorite thing to hate, class."
However, as Kanye explained, time is the most valuable asset, because it cannot be re-purchased. He explained, "...if you lose your expensive luggage at the airport, you can get that back. You can't get the time back."
Watch this lecture right here:
