Yo, Check Out This Old School Video of Kanye West Making “Jesus Walks”

Posted by Nathan S. on 01/18/11 | Filed under Top Stories, Videos, Kanye West, Rap Nerdery

Believe it or not, there was a time before Kanye West was the abomination of Obama's nation, before he was both hailed as a hip-hop genius and a human lightning rod for controversy. Before he was flying the world in private jets, he was just a dude with an afro puff kicking it with Rhymefest and talking about how they were going to make it big.

I have two immediate reactions to this video. First, it's crazy to see Kanye being something close to a normal person, although even then that normal person clearly had huge dreams. Second, it's a little sad to watch Rhymefest here. Kanye and he were essentially on equal footing, but while Ye's skyrocketed to fame, it still hasn't really happened for Fest. Hell, he even got kicked off "Jesus Walks".

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undadog4eva	i watched it over at TSS yesterday and got so sick of the incessant tagging in the middle of the damn video!
	Posted on Jan 19, 2011

DJ Brookllen	That is crazy seeing him back in the day when he was humbled. I feel like if you saw him in the studio today he would be saying how great his music is as opposed to just enjoying it and having fun. And yea the tagging through out the entire video is really annoying.
	Posted on Jan 19, 2011

tdotraza

^Nah, videos of Kanye in the studio still come out. I remember reading one article in particular that I think was an interview with either Charlie Wilson or Bon Iver (probably the latter, I think the former was just quoted once), and they raved about the recording process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTSov-a4lUI

Here's a video of Kanye, Charlie Wilson and Mos Def dancing and stuff to some unreleased tracks. Music is one of the things Kanye really cares about (though he'll rant about everything and anything).

Posted on Jan 19, 2011

DimeBeats5B	Why did he take 'fest out? His verse sounded legit.
	Posted on Jan 19, 2011

Nathan S.	^ I can only imagine he took Fest out because he wanted it to be "his" song, and in retrospect it was the right call. As a compromise Fest got to keep a songwriting credit, which is why he's got a Grammy (little known fact).
	Posted on Jan 19, 2011

cubdex	It's crazy that in the second song he plays after Jesus Walks he has a bar that say "no one man should have all that power" which is his main line now in the single "Power".
	Posted on Jan 19, 2011