Although Kanye West first turned heads as a rapper with his College Dropout masterpiece, the rapper/producer had been making beats for a good many years before becoming one of music’s most influential and controversial voices.
Recently, former rapper Jensen Karp unearthed 2 discs that feature some of the earliest circulated Kanye-beats. The beats reportedly go all the way back to 2001.
Jensen believes that “this collection of early Kanye beats shows you where he came from, even if it doesn’t necessarily sound like ‘Kanye’ now.”
Listening to it, the beats undeniably sound like early Kanye – from the soulful sample selection to the sweeping strings to Kanye’s signature “chipmunk” tuning of the vocals. Truth be told, the beats sound pretty damn good, especially for stuff that ended up not seeing the light of day (until now). Hell, the first beat would have sounded right at home on either College Dropout or Late Registration. If you’ve got an hour, this is a good listen.
[TheFourOhFive] via [AV Club]
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