Kanye West’s First Beats Revealed
Jensen Karp of the Hype Men has released a full CD featuring some of Kanye West's earliest beats from 2001.
Karp obtained the discs 10 years ago when he was releasing his own records and looking for producers. He wrote:
"Last week I was stumbling through my garage, searching through old storage bins, when I came across some old beat CDs from my days as a signed Interscope rapper. I was shocked to find that two of them, both given to me in ‘01, had the name Kanye West on them.
"I think this collection of early Kanye beats shows you where he came from, even if it doesn’t necessarily sound like Kanye now. He kept at it and became the incredible producer he is today."
There may not be a 'Gold Digger' or 'All of the Lights' among the batch, but the 26 untitled cuts released by the Hype Men include some that would seem to have hit potential.
Just one unanswered question: How does Kanye feel about the release of his early work? Karp doesn't say, and West's usually-active Twitter page has been silent for a couple weeks now.
You can stream all of the 26 beats from disc 1 at djbooth.net. Karp plans to release a second disc of Kanye beats on April 4.
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