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Lupe Fiasco has never been one to bite his tongue on matters important to him. Over the weekend, the Chicago native addressed a collective of young men who recently graduated from high school and during his speech called the city’s school system “terrible.” 

The Chicago Sun-Times reported about Fiasco’s visit to what organizers dubbed the “Mass Black Male Graduation and Transition to Manhood” event. The rapper served as the keynote speaker, and used the platform to rail against the city’s beleaguered educational ranks.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Congratulations, you have graduated from one of the most terrible, substandard school systems in the entire world. You have just spent the last 12 years receiving one of the worst educations on earth. You are at least four, five steps behind people in other countries that are younger than you.

Transition to manhood is the most important thing that’s going on right now. The caps and the gowns and your tassels and your honorary blah blah blahs don’t mean nothing. That’s just dress. That’s just some clothes. Meaningless clothes, too, because they have no real purpose in life. They don’t keep you warm. What do they do? They just represent to someone else that you’ve achieved something. But then when you look back at it, what have you achieved?

Joining Fiasco at the event were area professionals and politicians there to support the graduating collective. Fiasco, a product of the same school system he openly criticized, pledged $100 to each of the 150 graduates during the ceremony.

Photo: Chicago Sun-Times