By now, we all roughly know the Kanye West story. No, not the one that features him publicly denouncing Taylor Swift on that VMA stage, and practically having to go into hiding for over a year. Or the one that consists of him comparing Kim Kardashian to Marilyn Monroe and carrying out a public–and eventually successful–campaign to get her on the cover of Vogue.
We’re talking about the story of him trying to break into the game. Producing for Beanie Sigel, and working with Dame Dash to get his beats to Jay Z–the combination of the Herman Melville sample and the “Xxplosive” drums on “This Can’t Be Life” was eventually the one that put ‘Ye on the map–so he could get his rapping foot in the door. That however, was 1999-2000. The grand opening of the 6th Avenue Fat Beats was 1996, and to celebrate, Xzibit, Chino XL, and several other prominent hip-hop figures were invited to come rock out, and Kanye West had the opportunity to rap for just over a minute. By watching the clip can you tell that Ye was going to be a star? Did you think he knew?
Chances are, he did.
