YouTube is perhaps most useful as a historical archive. When it comes to hip hop, the site is a veritable treasure trove of videos of rappers as they were before the fame, back when their music video budgets hovered in the single digits.
These clips are not pretty, but grainier is almost better -- intense pixellation gives these videos the character of artifacts rather than modern footage, even if they are only a few years old.
We have assemble a list of 19 rappers rapping before the fame. Click through the gallery to watch artists like Kanye West, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, & Chance the Rapper spitting their hearts out in attempt to prove their worth to camera, to a small crowd, to themselves.
Chance the Rapper
Age: 13-14; 17-18
"They send his ass to summer school don't call it a comeback, I just came to beat a bully's ass and get my lunch back"
Tory Lanez
Age: 15-16
"Got gats longer than Shaq's spinal cord"
Age: 20-21; 24
"I give you a snotty nose from body blows"
Kendrick Lamar
Age: 21-23
“This ain't rap, it's really a porno, rewind it back"
Meek Mill
Age: 18-19
"Meek Mill terrible, flow unbearable, 'cause I break bricks and throw shells like Mario"
Age: 17
"Tryna be bad when you're laying on your back, too young to have sex but you don't care about that"
J Cole (f.k.a. Therapist)
Age: 17-18; 21
"We crazy over that bread, call us the dough nuts"
50 Cent
Age: unknown
"This rap shit, it'll get to your head, have you screaming 'fuck the police' when you're scared of the feds"
Age: 16-18
"Big Sean about to claim the game, when it comes to sex and drugs, I stay abstained"
Kanye West
Age: 19
"My style ain't original because I stole it from the future"
Mac Miller
Age: high school
“Got the skin color of a Twinkie, try to take over the world like I was Pinky"
Fetty Wap
Age: 21-22
"Nigga I deserve to shine, 'cause all a nigga know is grind"
Notorious B.I.G.
Age: 17
"She was a sweet bitch, a crazy crab that might make my dick itch"
Age: 18-19
"Coming straight from Bed-Stuy, I tell no lie, I got wings 'cause I'm so fly"
Lil Yachty
Age: 16-17
"Pocket full of pencils, different colors like some Mentos"
Swae Lee
Age: 16
"Girl scout speakers because I promise they knocking a lot"
Eminem
Age: 23-24
"Not to brag, I don't need to boast, my face is pale, but you look like you've seen a ghost"
Lil Wayne
Age: 12-15; 15-16
"H is for high like we always get"
Drake
Age: 19-20
"I been a mess since every girl left went and got a new man, but I'm the new version of Fresh Prince"
