Kanye West who has picked up 21 coveted Grammy Awards so far in his career, told students at Los Angeles Trade Technical College during a guest talk on Friday, September 19, 2014 that he uses the prizes as ‘reference points’ to ‘points’ to ‘prove’ his talents and also spoke of his frustration at not being taken seriously in the fashion industry.
Visual Communications student Andre Pitts told Complex: ‘He said that he doesn’t care about his Grammys but he thinks of them as reference points.
‘And that he can point back to them and say, ‘I’ve proven that I can do this, so I should be able to do this.’ So that’s what he was trying to get out, that he feels that he is able to do these things but that he’s being shot down by the fashion industry.’
And during a question and answer session with the students, Kanye – who has 15-month-old daughter North with wife Kim Kardashian West – admitted he still thinks of himself as ‘the best artist’ and prefers his own music to other people’s.
Andre said: ‘Someone asked if he listens to his own music, or if he listens to other people’s music. He said he likes to listen to his own music since he thinks he’s the best artist, still.’
The visit was at least Kanye’s fourth time speaking to Los Angeles students, and it forms part of his 240-hour community service sentence, which was handed out when he struck a plea deal over allegedly attacking a photographer last summer.