Kanye West Talks Ego, Elitism, Nicki Minaj at Oxford: I Wanted to Be 'Picasso or Greater'

Say what you will about Kanye West — and you most certainly will, in the comments section — but while he's impulsive and indulgent, he speaks his mind freely and it's a breath of fresh air in this media-trained modern world. Above all else, he is almost always right. Each time Kanye West delivers one of his "rants" or "meltdowns," if you listen, really listen, to what he is saying, there is always a nugget of truth hidden in the rhetoric.

Nothing was different when Kanye West spoke Monday at North West's future alma mater, Oxford University, before a group of 350 students. His self-described stream of conciousness lasted for about 30 minutes and touched on a range of topics, from The Matrix, to ego, to materialism, to Nicki Minaj.

On his requirements when giving such an address:

"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. Literally, a whisper can throw it off."

On ego:

"One of my biggest Achilles heels has been my ego. And if I, Kanye West, the very person, can remove my ego, I think there’s hope for everyone."

On Nicki Minaj:

"One of the most memorable things about [My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy] was Nicki Minaj, and the fact that she kicked my ass, on my own song, on one of the best albums…the best album – I’m just saying what the critics said – of the last 25 years. The best album of the past 25 years that I spent a year and a half making, out there. I was exiled from my country, it was a personal exile, but exile. To come back and deliver my magnum opus of a work, and to be outshined … to be beat by a girl, basically. This was necessary. I think it was one of the most important points of working on that album, was to not stop her from her moment because of how good she is."

On his reputation and being called crazy:

"People say I have a bad reputation. I think I've got the best reputation in the building. They want you to have a reputation of tucking your black nail polish into your pockets and sitting in the corner of the class, and not fighting for your ideas out of fear of being ridiculed. ... That's one of my favorite ones… to be called crazy."

On his goals:

"My goal, if I was going to do art, fine art, would have been to become Picasso or greater. That always sounds so funny to people, comparing yourself to someone in the past that has done so much, and in your life you’re not even allowed to think that you can do as much. That’s a mentality that suppresses humanity."

And on his perception that The Matrix is the Bible of the post-information age:

"What I said was The Matrix is like the Bible of the post-information age. I compared it, like, when the hundred guys come at Neo, those are opinions, that’s perception, that’s tradition. Attacking people from every which angle possible. If you have a focus wide and master senseis like Laurence Fishburne and you have a squad behind you, you literally can put the world in slow motion."

On President Obama:

"He calls the home phone, by the way."

On materialism:

"Time is the only luxury. It’s the only thing you can’t get back. If you lose your luggage – I’m not gonna say the obvious brand of luggage that I’d normally say because I’ve got a meeting with them soon – if you lose your expensive luggage at the airport, you can get that back. You can’t get the time back. It feels like people do everything in life to get this BMW, this Benz, to get this town-home, to get 2.5 kids exactly. 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 [her favorite toy]."

You can read the entire speech at The Oxford Tab.