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At MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West Speaks Out About Chicago Gun Violence

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Kanye West used part of his unfiltered four minutes at last night's MTV Video Music Awards to speak out against the unending cycle of violence in Chicago's poorest neighborhoods.

"We came over in the same boat; now we all in the same bed," he said. "Well, maybe, different boats, but you know. But if you think about it, last week there was 22 people murdered in Chicago."

West then shared a story of how the hundreds of people dying on the streets destroys all hope of not just a good future, but any future.

"So I was speaking at the Art Institute [of Chicago] last year and one kid came up to me and he said, 'Three of my friends died and I don't know if Ima be the next.'

"You know when you're a senior, and it's like the last month and you just don't feel like doing any more work. If you feel like you're seeing people dying right next to you, you might feel like, 'What's the point?'

"Like life will feel start to feel worthless in a way."

"My friend told me there's three keys to keeping people impoverished: that's taking away their esteem, taking away their resources and taking away their role models."

Just this past weekend, 10 people were killed, and 57 were wounded in shootings across Chicago.

On Friday, Dwayne Wade's cousin, Nykea Aldridge, was shot dead while pushing a stroller, caught in gang crossfire. Two brothers with long criminal records were arrested.

"They don't care who they shoot and they don't fear the consequences," Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said, noting that about 1,400 people are driving 85 percent of the city's gun violence.

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