Kanye West spoke at the VMAs Sunday night about the importance of artistry and compared himself yet again to some of the biggest icons in human history.

West was given four minutes of free airtime by MTV, and as always, the controversial rapper chose to make the most of it. He started off by praising his own music video for "Famous", which featured recreations of various celebrities nude in bed together, for expressing the state of fame in the modern world.

West then launched into how art can inspire young people, in spite of all the rampant violence going on in America today.

"If you think about last week it was 22 people murdered in Chicago. You know, like people come up to me like man that's right take Taylor [Swift] down-bro, I love all of y'all. That's why I called her," he began. "So I was speaking at the Art Institute last year and one kid came up to me and said, 'three of my friends died and I don't know whether I'm going to be the next.' You know if you're a senior and it's your last month and you don't feel like doing any more work? If you're seeing people die next to you, life might start to feel worthless in a way. I sit down and talk to older, rich people, a.k.a. 'white,' you know, and they tell me, 'Don't compare yourself to Steve Jobs, don't compare yourself to Walt Disney.' My friend told me, 'There are three keys to keeping people impoverished: taking away their esteem, taking away their resources, and taking away their role models.' My role models are artist-merchants. Less than 10 I can name in history. Truman, Ford, Hughes, Disney, Jobs, West."

The rapper then introduced his new music video for "Fade", one of the singles off his latest album, The Life of Pablo. The video features R&B singer Teyana Taylor wearing a revealing outfit as she struts around in various seductive poses. The video then takes a jarring turn at the end, which can only be seen to be believed.

Check out West's speech and his new "Fade" video below:

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Kanye West, Vmas