Before the ego took over.
When it comes to Kanye West, this writer has some very clear views.
As a musician, he’s almost peerless in the rap genre because the ‘college trilogy’ albums are fantastic while his introverted and more personal work on ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ and ‘808s and Heartbreak’ is fantastic.
As a person, he’s got an uncontrollable ego that’s the size of the galaxy.
This wasn’t always always the case though as seen by this class footage.
Every musician has to start off as a raw, nervous yet enthusiastic performer and it’s easy to see West eventually became one of the biggest names on the planet from this clip. West did keep good company though, John Legend also features on piano.
Filmed back in 2003, the video shows a young Kanye performing the original version of “Gold Digger”, a year before his debut record The College Dropout reached shelves.
There’s no appearance from Jamie Foxx, sampling of Ray Charles’ “I Got a Woman” or trademark egotistical strops on show here.
It’s just a young talented rapper that’s performing to a crowd whilst wearing a rucksack and a Reese’s Pieces T-shirt.
If only he seemed this approachable and down to earth all the time.
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