Hype Men Present: Kanye West’s First Beats [Disc 1]

Well, isn’t this a nice surprise.  If you’re a fan of It’s The Real’s (Jeff & Eric Rosenthal) and Jensen Karp’s weekly podcast Hype Men, then you’d know that Jensen was formerly signed to Interscope in the early-aughts as a rapper.  One of the first producers he worked with upon receiving that Iovine check, was none other than a young Kanye West.  I think most people still thought his name was Kayne at that point.  Anyhoo, before Mp3’s became the way beats were shopped and shipped, every producer had a tried and true beat CD that they’d fleece to every A&R, artist and label they could track down.  And while Jensen was cleaning out his garage last week, he found two discs worth of beats Kanye slid him way back when.   Now a handful of these beats ended up in the hands of Geda K, State Property and lesser known Chicago acts, but I’m POSITIVE that some of the FSD readers and local producers have heard a majority of these beats and probably have their own Kanye beat CDs laying around somewhere.  I’m sure of it.  Probably bigger and better ones, actually.  As always, feel free to share if you happen to track them down.  The project is stream only over at DJ Booth and it’s well worth your time to take a walk down memory lane and hear the earliest sounds of one of hip-hop’s G.O.A.T.’s.  The evolution of his sound has been incredible and his early stuff is still better than a lot of the crap these new jacks are cranking out these days. 

Says Jensen:

“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 rapper. I was shocked to find that two of them, both given to me in the year 2001, had the name ‘Kanye West’ on them. I remember Kanye being hyped to me as someone who had just worked with Beanie Sigel and was about to work with Ludacris, so I was obviously interested in this dude with a weird name. I popped in the CD and wasn’t exactly blown away to be honest. It was definitely good though, so I asked my manager for more beats from this Kanye character. I got a second beat CD and again couldn’t find anything to pick directly, but knew there was potential (keep in mind that 2001 was a mighty synth-y year). I got on the phone with Kanye that week and he played me some beats over the phone (that included “H to the Izzo”). I picked one song from that phone call and it ended up being one of the first label paychecks written with his name on it. (I also was the first person to rap his name in a song. Because ‘Kanye’ rhymed with ‘picante’).

These two beat CDs, now celebrating their 10 year anniversary and I believe the oldest Kanye beats ever released, are here for your enjoyment. We wanted you to hear these not just for the Kanye completist inside you, but for people to understand how far someone like Kanye has come. I distinctly remember him talking about rapping himself and hoping to break out of the box that was hip-hop. He told me how big of a Jim Morrison fan he was and how he wanted to sample something from him (that happened and hurt Nas bad), and even played me a song where he used only movie titles in the verses (that didn’t happen, which is good cause it was awkward). And I think these two beat CDs show 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. I remember he even had to leave the studio sessions early, so he could make the last train back to his mom’s house. He’s come a long way, and I’m proud to have been around, even if for just a second at the start.

If I was super inspirational, I’d tell you guys to stick with it also, and maybe you can become a multi-platinum superstar, but I won’t, cause honestly – your beats probably suck.”

Stream now.

Update: Someone in the KanyeToThe Forum’s put together a somewhat comprehensive list of where these beats landed.  They flubbed on the first one, as it wasn’t used by Charles Hamilton, but by Geda K for “Respect Carter”