Who IS Kanye West?

That’s a question most of us have at some stage asked ourselves, and there is no simple answer.

His Wikipedia entry describes him as a ‘rapper, songwriter, record producer, director, entrepreneur and fashion designer.’

To which you could add ‘movie star, TV personality, video creator, businessman, and world’s most famous husband.’

Or ‘braggart, jerk, egomaniac, self-publicity hound.’

It all depends on how he rocks your particular boat.

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Honor for a 'Visionary': Kanye West's speech at the BET Honors 2015 offered a fascinating insight into the motivations and innermost thoughts of the music and fashion superstar

Today, a video emerged of a speech Kanye gave at the BET Honors event, where he was recognized for being the ‘Visionary’ of the year.

In just eight minutes, and speaking without notes, he managed to be funny, warm, eloquent, charming, provocative, insightful, compassionate, thought-provoking, challenging, and self-mocking.

‘For one of the first times in my life,’ he said at the start, after an effusive introduction. ‘I understand how it feels to be humble’.

The audience took a second to get the joke than roared with laughter.

But nowhere near as loud as they laughed when he defended Kim Kardashian-West against charges of gold-digging by revealing: ‘My wife has dated broke black dudes too, so it ain’t got nothing to do with the money!’

He then switched mood and told a story of how Kim’s dad, Robert Kardashian walked out after the OJ Simpson trial – he led the defense team - to find his car had been scraped with the racist taunt: ‘N****r-lover.’

Robert erupted with fury and when a startled Kim asked why he was so crazy, Kanye revealed that Robert said to his daughter: ‘One day you may have a black child, a beautiful beautiful beautiful black child, and you will see how hard it is.’

But it was when Kanye went on to explain why he is so frustrated with the reality of racial equality that I found him most riveting.

Another controversy: Kanye made himself the center of attention during the Grammys earlier this month when he stormed the stage again during an artist's acceptance speech. This time the victim was Beck who Kanye thought did not deserve to win 2015 Album of the Year ahead of Beyonce

The other side of the enigmatic artist: Earlier during the 2015 Grammys, Kanye gave a triumphant performance alongside Sir Paul McCartney and Rihanna where the stellar trio sang their hit 'FourFiveSeconds'

‘Part of the reason of why I’m not allowed to be empowered is because of race,’ he said, ‘because of people’s perception of celebrity, because all they want to present to young black men is the idea of making it to the League, or becoming a rapper, but not the idea of becoming an owner.’

He paused for a few seconds of silence, and his eyes flashed with anger.

‘Harriet Tubman (the acclaimed civil rights campaigner who freed 70 families from slavery in the early 20th century) could have freed so many more if they had only known they weren’t free. So don’t think if we can afford this custom-made suit, we are free. And don’t think that because we can buy a $300,000 car we are free. And don’t think that because if 3percent of a gated community has colored people in it, that we’re free. It’s the slave mentality, where we all become slaves to that car, slaves to the perception, slaves to the idea of being cool.

‘Our power, our oil, is our expression, our influence, don’t never let them take that away. And don’t just do it for us, do it for the human race.’

The audience gave him a standing ovation and I wanted to as well.

Because it takes real courage to say stuff like that.

Innovative: Since his debut album 'The College Dropout' in 2004, Kanye has won a staggering 21 Grammys and become known for his sparse and experimental stage shows

The Greatest: Muhammad Ali burst into the spotlight and electrified the world with his defeat of Sonny Liston in 1964 to become heavyweight champion of the world. He went on to transcend the sport of boxing and was a leader of racial and social justice during the 1960s, in no small part helped by his magnetic charisma

Fashionable friends: Kanye has worked with Jay-Z since the early 2000s and has notoriously defended the hip hop star's wife twice by storming the stage. Once during the VMAS in 2009 and again earlier this month during the Grammys

It would be far easier for Kanye to rest on his laurels, sit back in his flash car or gated mansion, keep his mouth shut and count his cash.

He’s sold 21 million albums and 66 million digital downloads, won 21 Grammy Awards and was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people on the planet.

That makes him one of the most successful entertainers in history.

And his talent for making music is only surpassed by his talent for making headlines.

Any celebrity can hit the news by doing or saying something crazy.

Even Clint Eastwood got more attention for rambling at an empty chair at a GOP convention than he did for most of his movies.

We live in a social media-driven age where the slightest deviation from normal behavior is swiftly propelled into global sensation at the push of a retweet.

Multi-talented: During New York Fashion Week, Kanye West debuted his latest designs - which divided opinion. Criticism which Kanye typically, brushed off

But Kanye’s genius lies in doing it in such a way that you end up first condemning him, then loving him for it.

It was, for example, completely wrong of him to storm the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009, when Taylor Swift was accepting her award for Best Female Video, grab the microphone and proclaim that Beyonce should have won it instead.

Even President Obama weighed in to call him a ‘Jackass’.

It was Taylor’s moment, and of course he should have let her enjoy it.

And yet, any dispassionate observer would have to agree he was also completely right; Beyonce’s sensational video for “Single Ladies (Put A Ring It)” blew Taylor’s “You Belong With Me” to smithereens.

Kanye’s been stage-storming for a decade, indignant at perceived injustices aimed at him and other artists.

I’ve always both thoroughly enjoyed the chaos it causes, and in every single case, agreed with him.

At this year’s rather dull Grammys, the whole show erupted with electricity when Kanye walked up, as the absurdly overrated Beck got the Album of the Year award, then smiled and walked off again.

Everybody laughed at the ‘joke’, only Kanye wasn’t actually joking.

Afterwards, he said: ‘Beck needs to respect artistry, he should have given his award to Beyonce.’

And, frankly, if Beck did have an ounce of self-awareness about the cheesy guff he churns out, that’s exactly what he should have done.

'Jackass': After Kanye interrupted Taylor Swift's victory at the VMA's, even President Obama offered his opinion and slapped down the rapper for insensitively claiming that Beyonce should have won

More importantly, Kanye’s been a powerfully provocative voice about stuff that really matters.

In 2005, at a benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina, he went off script to say: ‘I hate the way they portay us in the media. You see a black family, it says they’re looting. You see a white family, it says they’re looking for food. George Bush doesn’t care about black people’.

The comment, predictably, caused outrage, and he later apologized.

But many black Americans were more outraged about the apology than the original remark, mindful of the disgraceful way the people of New Orleans were treated by Bush’s administration, and by the different way the media does indeed treat images of black and white people in such situations.

‘It was not the particulars of your words that mattered,’ argued Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons, ‘it was the essence of a feeling of the insensitivity towards our communities that many of us have felt for far too long.’

Kanye’s also, to his great credit, been a long-time, vociferous opponent of homophobia in rap and hip hop music.

And an equally vocal defender of his own reputation if it comes under attack.

Family man: Kanye has publicly defended his wife Kim Kardashian on more than one occasion and recently released a new song, 'Only One', written for his daughter, North West. He claimed the song was channeled through to him by his mother, Donda West, who passed away in 2007

When he launched a massive diatribe of abuse at Jimmy Kimmel on Twitter for mocking an interview he’d done, I read it and cheered him on.

Not because I don’t like Kimmel, he’s a great host.

But because I love the way Kanye fights his corner like a wounded bull careering around a china shop.

Just as I love the way he dresses, with style and class, defying the stereo-typical trashy garb of many in the hip-hop and rap world.

And the unashamed public love and respect he showered on his late mother – who raised him as a single parent - and now on his much-maligned wife, and their child.

He may get mocked, berated, abused and become the butt of talk show jokes when he frequently blows up.

But I’ve come to realize that he's the Muhammad Ali of showbusiness: The single most fascinating, compelling, unpredictable, dangerous and uniquely talented star in the world.