Kanye West made a surprise appearance at a Los Angeles college on Friday (19.09.14).

The 'Yeezus' singer spent around two hours speaking to 40 students from the digital communications department at LA Trade Technical College, as well as spending time with troubled youth participating in a summer bridge programme, and he used the sessions to talk about his experiences and personal struggles in music, fashion and graphic arts, and to stress the importance of getting an education.

One student, Andre Pitts III, explained how the 37-year-old rapper - who has 15-month-old daughter North with wife Kim Kardashian West - ''didn't try'' to teach the students anything, but just wanted to share his experiences.

He told Vice.com: ''It went on for about an hour and a half and Kanye discussed a lot of things but mainly about his inspirations. He mentioned Ice Cube being one of his biggest inspirations, but also one of his biggest let downs. He also discussed Steve jobs, 2Pac and his grandfather.

''I've listened to Kanye since I was younger but I can't rate him as a teacher because he didn't come to teach a fashion class, he just spoke about his inspirations. He didn't try to be a teacher, he simply spoke about how life really is.''

The visit was at least Kanye's fourth time speaking to Los Angeles students, and it forms part of his 240-hour community service sentence which was handed out when he struck a plea deal over allegedly attacking a photographer last summer.