Rare Kanye West Live Performance Video from 1996 Surfaces Online

Before Kanye West was a ‘College Dropout,’ he was a young teenager rapping on the scene with a gangsta lean. Although urban legend has it that the Chicago native was a ferocious MC when he was a youngster, we haven’t bear witness to his earlier years of him spitting rhymes on the mic.

Someone went digging around on YouTube and found an old video of a 19-year-old West rapping onstage at a Chicago-area club. The clip, which was uploaded in 2010, features Yeezy and a local rapper named Phenom sharing the stage at the Double Door venue in 1996. The video features a confident West reciting rapid-fire punchlines and repeating the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard line, “I’ve never been tookin’ out / I keep MCs lookin’ out.”

It’s evident that Yeezy had a lot of chutzpah and stage presence as a young rapper. Even back then, he felt highly of himself. “Kanye 9-6 y’all / The divine one / The fine one / Whatever, the dime one,” West raps before closing out his set.

Take a trip down memory lane by checking out this old footage below.

Watch ‘Phenom and Kanye West’ Video