Kanye West Gives Oxford Lecture: My biggest Achilles heels has been my ego.

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This week, Kanye West took his talents to the prestigious Oxford University. And if you know Ye like we know Ye, he loves to talk and some of us (*raises hands*) love to listen. The 20 minute (and some change) speech addressed the usual suspects — politics, class, fashion, music and his ego.

Peep a few of our favorite excerpts, via Oxford Tab.

One of the best moments from his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album:

One of the most memorable things about MBDTF 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.

Why Minaj murdering him on this album was essential: 

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. Just think of a comparison, if you think about why did it take so long for the new Yeezys to come out? Why did I have to leave one group and go to another group? Why did that group not want to speak to me? I think the Yeezys I was doing over there were comparable to that Nicki Minaj verse. Because these guys were like ‘we’re worrying about this shoe, we’re gonna put it on this celebrity’. And the head’s son would come and say ‘my favourite shoe is the Yeezy’. And it’s like ‘ahhh, I can’t hear about these YEEZYS anymore!’. Like everyone talking about Nicki’s verse, ‘I can’t hear about this verse anymore!’. It was gonna work for her anyway, but let’s just say that in some way in helped give her exposure. She was able to go on and become a successful, and fly, and run, and dream, and provide. And it was not locked because of my career.

One of his biggest internal challenges:

One of my biggest Achilles heels has been my ego. And if I, Kanye West, the very person, can

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