The fans want the feeling of A Tribe Called Quest / But all they got left is this guy called West

January 17, 2012 10:42 AM

Here's never before seen footage of a teenage Kanye West performing at the Double Door in Chicago in 1996 (YouTube) Want to go farther back in time? After posting the 1996 video DDotOmen readers uncovered footage of a 12 year old West, performing "His Name Means Love," a poem he wrote in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, at Vanderpoel Elementary School in 1990. (YouTube)

Bonus: Did you know Dave Chappelle gave Kanye West his first opportunity to perform on television? Here's rough footage of Two Words, performed alongside Mos Def and Freeway on the second season of Chappelle's Show in 2004.

posted by 2bucksplus (15 comments total)

Was that dude ever not rapping about Michael Jackson? He's one of the most thematically obsessed artists I know of.
posted by Think_Long at 10:49 AM on January 17, 2012

I live right down the street from the Double Door so I choose to interpret this post as being about me.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:54 AM on January 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Your Two Words link goes to Wikipedia, did you mean to link to kanYe West with Mos Def and Freeway ("previously unreleased uncut version" of the video Daily Motion).
posted by filthy light thief at 10:54 AM on January 17, 2012

Actually it should have been this video.
posted by 2bucksplus at 11:00 AM on January 17, 2012

Throw some Daft Punk samples and a humble brag about being tired from sleeping with all the models onto the poem in the second video and it's a guaranteed hit.
posted by littlerobothead at 11:16 AM on January 17, 2012

He's one of the most thematically obsessed artists I know of.

You haven't heard me, then. In my capacity as a professional rapper¹, it's recently been brought to my attention that I can't stop dropping references to Star Wars.

Seriously.





1. No, really.
posted by Edison Carter at 11:17 AM on January 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

But, other than that, he's an incredible talent. Damn, 'Ye, keep it going.
posted by Edison Carter at 11:18 AM on January 17, 2012

Polarizing as he can be, Kanye West strikes me as one of those people for whom sustained fame is no accident or stroke of luck at all, but a very natural progression of their existence (see also: Madonna). These old videos kind of confirm that for me, especially the one from 1990, which I thought would perhaps feature a shy, tentative adolescent speaker--not quite the cocky, confident performer we know today, and boy was I wrong.
posted by sundaydriver at 11:19 AM on January 17, 2012 [5 favorites]

It's like he belongs on stage.
posted by Edison Carter at 11:22 AM on January 17, 2012

Everybody loves the Double Door.
posted by timsteil at 11:44 AM on January 17, 2012

I don't know what this post means, but it's provocative.
posted by gagglezoomer at 12:21 PM on January 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Little known fact was that in the 80s Kanye went by the name 'Diamond West' and performed in a glam metal band.
posted by xorry at 12:48 PM on January 17, 2012

I'mma let you finish.... ah, fuck it.
posted by porn in the woods at 2:40 PM on January 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

That monster is hotter than a middle-eastern climate.
posted by unliteral at 3:27 PM on January 17, 2012

shakespeherian: "I live right down the street from the Double Door so I choose to interpret this post as being about me."

That's exactly what Kanye would think in your situation.
posted by falameufilho at 3:53 PM on January 17, 2012