FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Music

Watch a Pre-College Dropout Yeezus Predict the Future

Before Kanye West was an elaborate art project with his own religion, he was a man with a dream and a t-shirt with his own name on it.
Emma Garland
London, GB

Kanye West—headliner of news stories, Glastonbury 2015, and every conversation about celebrity outrageousness that has taken place in the last five years—was not always the man we see today.

These days, we live in a world where everything Kanye West does, no matter how ridiculous, happens under the assumption that it's just a venting of his uncontainable creative genius. That's why he can waltz on stage in a feathered yeti snowman/ warewolf George Washington costume and humanity will throw their heads back in unison and say, "That's so Kanye of Kanye!" But occasionally we are faced with a stark reminder that there was a Yeezy before Yeezus—a man who wasn't the best, but knew that someday he would be.

Advertisement

In another rare video that the internet (and someone in his inner circle) has gifted us, you can watch footage below of a Kanye before Kim accepted his advances. A Kanye known primarily as a producer, rather than an elaborate art project with his own religion. A Kanye who, in his own words, "wasn't always having hot beats."

With the frustrated flames of youth burning discernibly in his tummy, he proclaims, "I learned how to make hot beats. I'm focusing on rapping now and I'mma be the fucking best […] I'mma come out number one, hopefully."

It's a Yeezy classic that whisks us back to the humble all-caps tirades of KanyeUniverseCity.Com - Kanye's blog that has since been replaced by a sad and depressing error message, but used to be a place where he would pour his heart out with thirsty sentiments such as: "YOOOO WHY WON'T YOU LET ME BE GREAT!!!" and "LOOK HOW FRESH MY SUIT IS"

It's inspiring, really. From Skepta realising his five year plan of doing a free show in a car park, to Justin Timberlake's pre-pubescent boyband beginnings (featuring Ryan Gosling), and now Kanye West caught using words like "hopefully"—which have since been completely removed from the Yeezy Dictionary—this is further proof that dreams can come true. Through determination, hard graft, and self-affirming rants recorded on a handheld camera in low definition.

Where this will fit into The Church of Yeezianity's prophecies remains to be known, but if there's one lesson we can always take from Kanye West it's this: in order to be the fucking best, you better put on a T-shirt with your own name on it and live life like you already are.

Follow Emma on Twitter.