ACADEMIC dissertations can be dull, weighty tomes, but one enterprising student chose to focus his studies on the far from boring rapper Kanye West.

English literature student Harry Bainbridge, of Middleton Tyas, North Yorkshire, has written his final year dissertation on the rapper, with his 10,492-word work titled “I Love Kanye: Identity in the works of Kanye West”.

The 24-year-old told The Sun that a few years working in celebrity marketing piqued his interested in how the public consumes identities rather than actual people.

Kanye West, the husband of reality television star Kim Kardashian, is known as much for his egotistical rants as he is for his music, and Mr Bainbridge's dissertation attempts to "examine the script of the Kanye West identity and the constant battle for control over it".

He told The Sun: “I wanted to work on something that I was really excited about and interested in.

“I also wanted to write something that I felt hadn’t necessarily been covered before, so I wanted to challenge myself with something slightly off the beaten track.”

Mr Bainbridge, a Leeds University student, admitted he was a 'big Kanye fan' and described how his dissertation research involved hours listening to the rapper's back catalogue and reading his lyrics.

The multi award-winning Kanye West burst onto the music scene in the early 2000s with a string of hit records, but in more recent years has courted controversy with on-stage rants and gig cancellations.

He was admitted to hospital for a psychiatric evaluation last December but is now understood to be working on a new album in Wyoming.