Kanye West paid his respects during his hometown show in Chicago earlier in the week. Taking the stage at the United Center on the second night on his sold-out Watch the Throne concert with Jay-Z, the seven-time Grammy nominee dedicated his performance to the woman who raised him and thanked Jay and Beyoncé for supporting him during his “darkest hours.”

“It’s a glorious occasion,” said ‘Ye. “But right now I want ya’ll to put two fingers in the air right now. I wanna dedicate this show to the lady that brought me to Chicago at age three, the first black female chair of the English department at Chicago State University, Dr. Donda Claire Ann West. I know she up there looking down right now and she helped me get through these past four years, when America turned they back on me, when the world turned they back on me for tellin’ ya’ll the motherfuckin’ truth.”

He continued,

“And now I’m leading the Grammy nominations. And I just wanna thank Beyoncé and Jay-Z for standing by me in my darkest hours and you, Chicago, for standing by me in my darkest hour and giving me reason to feel like I should stay alive when the world thought I should die and staying by my side.”