Everyone seems to miss the old Kanye West, so much so that Yeezy even made a track about his most often-cited criticisms. Today, fans of the producer and rapper’s original production sound are in luck, because a Soundcloud user by the name of Trilly Madison has uploaded an eight-track beat tape, purported to be from 1997.
The first track features a very old school “Kanye” producer tag, and the beats are food for the soul of 90s era hip hop heads. The beats are unsurprisingly sample-heavy, with Kanye looping live instrumentation into laid back boom bap tracks. Despite their age and the relative infancy of Kanye’s career up to this point, the beats absolutely stand up to the test of time. Despite being a bit rough and not quite as experimental as his later work, these show ‘Ye was always savvy behind the boards.
Could you hear any current rappers spitting over one of these beats? Give us your ideal emcee and beat combinations in the comments.