West's mum compares him to Jesus, Gandhi

Kanye West's mother has praised her son by comparing him to such legends as Martin Luther King, Jesus Christ and Mahatma Gandhi.

Donda West, who is due to attend the Baltimore Book Festival this weekend to publicise her book Raising Kanye: Life Lessons From The Mother of A Hip Hop Superstar, spoke out about the star's influence on hip-hop music.

When she was asked if West's middle-class upbringing had helped him share a positive voice on the music scene, she told the Baltimore Sun: "I do think that Kanye is a voice that can definitely be used and should be used not only in hip-hop but across the arts, period.

"I think he is broader than a genre… I think he has a calling to reach a number of people. Kanye keeps it real. He touches the people.

"You never know how words can save a person's life, physically or otherwise. People like Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi or, in my view, Barack Obama, or Jesus Christ - people whose job it is to tell the truth - I see that in Kanye."