Young Yeezus! Long before he married Kim Kardashian and likened himself to the god of rapping, Kanye West was a teenager with a dream and a skill.
A throwback video of West rapping at an NYC Fat Beats store in August 1996, surfaced online Thursday, July 17, and it shows his impressive talent harkens back to age 19.
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The clip features the star, freestyling and even making an Alanis Morissette reference at one point. In true Kanye form, his younger self wears a polo shirt and uses kinesthetic hand motions as he captivates the room with his freestyling ability. West’s vocal pitch is slightly higher, too.
“It ain’t original because I’m coming from the future,” West, now 37, raps in the vid.
It’s also worth noting that the Chicago native’s showcase at Fat Beats’ 6th Ave. store opening came five years before he produced Jay Z‘s smash single “Izzo (H.O.V.A)” in 2001, and eight years prior to the release of his first studio album, The College Dropout, in 2004.
DJ Eclipse, general manager of Fat Beats, said he came across the “interesting footage” while converting old video tapes to DVD for the company’s 20th anniversary. “What took me by surprise was the appearance of this 19-year-old kid who at that time nobody knew,” he said. “At least in NYC.”
Watch the throwback clip above!
