Kanye honors Phife Dawg with touching speech: 'Y'all raised me'

Tuesday night's star-studded celebration for Phife Dawg at the Apollo Theater was a fitting goodbye to the late, great rapper, who died last month at 45.

Joining stars like Busta Rhymes, Andre 3000, The Roots and D'Angelo to pay tribute to one of hip hop's founding fathers was Kanye West, who took the stage for a speech about what Phife Dawg and A Tribe Called Quest meant to him.

Turns out, they meant everything. "Anything I ever did wrong, blame [Phife] 'cause y'all raised me," the rapper joked.

ATCQ were early inspirations for Kanye, as he described his walks home from school in Chicago soundtracked by their verses. "Low End Theory was the first album I ever bought and I stayed in the suburbs of Chicago with my stepfather," he said. "I'd always get into trouble for listening to music during the week and then I would have to go to detention or study hall, but I enjoyed it 'cause I had that Tribe tape and it didn't really matter how long that walk was."

He credited Phife and ATCQ for making it okay for Kanye to do Kanye, inspiring his desire to challenge conventions. "Y'all made it okay in a city of Al Capone — number one murder capital city — for me to be me," he said. "Tribe made Kanye West. Made the kid with the pink Polo. Made it so I could dress funny."

Read the full transcript of Kanye's speech over at Rolling Stone here, and watch a new tribute video for the posthumous Phife release Nutshell.