Watch Kanye West's 40-minute Oxford Guild speech from earlier this year

The Oxford Guild Society is Europe's "largest and oldest professional society", and dates back to 1897. It has hosted a plethora of speakers over the years, but few have drawn so much admiration and ire in equal measure. It was announced only 16 hours before the speech itself was due to commence, and over 5000 students applied for a seat.

The Guild have shared a few of their sentiments on the decision to invite Mr. West:

This was a thoroughly enjoyable and engaging talk from the legendary Kanye West and we hope you will enjoy watching the video recording online. Kanye West is a multi-award winning American rapper, songwriter, record producer, director, entrepreneur, and fashion designer. West is one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 21 million albums and 66 million digital downloads. Over the course of an illustrious career, West, having first gained prominence as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, has received 124 awards out of over 387 nominations, including 21 Grammy awards making him the most Grammy-awarded artist of his age and one of the most awarded artists of all time. Named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, West is a worldwide taste-maker and trend setter with a global presence through his musical artistry and stylistic endeavours across a variety of media.

Check out the 41-minute speech below. You can read the full transcript as well.