5 Times Kanye West Amazed In The Studio

Kanye West’s career was a long time coming. He spent years in the late ’90s grinding in Chicago music scene before he finally caught on with Roc-A-Fella Records and made a huge impact with work on Jay-Z’s The Blueprint. Things took off quickly after producing high-profile songs like “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” and “Never Change,” but Kanye still struggled to break into the mainstream as a rapper because of his middle class upbringing and reluctance to project the “gangsta” image that was extremely popular in the late ‘90s and early 2000s.

It seems crazy that someone with as much talent as ‘Ye would be ignored because of his image, but in the era before the social media-driven internet people were much less likely to take chances on unexplored territory. West was able to break out after his near-fatal accident in 2002, but his real calling card was always his ability to blow people away in the studio and attract other talented artists with his creative gravity.

In honor of the 12th anniversary of Kanye West’s debut The College Dropout, we’ve put together a list lesser-known, but still awesome, recorded moments of Yeezy in the studio.

WHEN: 2002 (Pre-College Dropout)
WHO: Chicago recording buddies

People often mistakenly think Kanye West started rapping because of his talent as a producer, but he actually honed his rhyming skills just as early as his chops behind the boards. Look no further than this major throwback from May 2002. Taken before Yeezy had his fateful car accident that prompted him to record “Through the Wire,” the Chicago emcee spits a half-freestyle combined with some pre-written raps about traveling to New York to work with Jay Z and Roc-A-Fella records. It’s good to see Kanye acting so natural among non-superstars, something we don’t see often anymore. And he can definitely rap. Some of these bars would end up on the Philadelphia emcee and producer CHOPS’ song “Changing Lanes.”

WHEN: Mixing session for College Dropout
WHO: Pharrell Williams

Even before his debut record dropped, Kanye was already attracting major names to come to the studio and work with him. Pharrell Williams, at the height of his Neptunes fame, dropped by a recording studio to hear an early mix of “Never Let Me Down,” a track from The College Dropout that featured Jay-Z and J. Ivy (remember him?). While listening to the track, Pharrell seems to be almost studying Kanye, getting a feel for him as an artist.

Skateboard P focuses in when Kanye decides to spit his verse on the song live, taking on an expression we only really see Pharrell make when he’s particularly captured by a singer on “The Voice.” Then, when ‘Ye finishes his verse, Pharrell goes crazy. Maybe he’s just gassing a young Kanye up, but we doubt it.

WHEN: Recording sessions for The Black Album
WHO: Jay-Z

We share .gifs from this video a lot, because Jay-Z makes some truly fantastic faces while listening to Kanye do his thing on the beat. Taken during The Black Album recording sessions, Kanye seems truly excited by his work, as he rarely stops cheesing the whole time. We also get some voice overs from Jay as he describes what it’s like to see a young artist come up in the game. Oh Jay-Z, if you could only have peered into what the future would become.

At one point in the video Jay-Z can’t contain himself, audibly saying “godDAMN.” The end of the clip features Kanye spitting Jay Z’s bars for Lucifer to help Jay understand how he should ride ‘Ye’s production.

As an aside, looking at Kanye’s style in this video versus now is pretty stunning. It’s possible he’s done as much growing in his style as he has in his music. 

WHEN: Recording sessions for Graduation
WHO: Timbaland

As Kanye became more popular, didn’t only got to host famous producers to showcase his work. He was able to enlist people like superproducer Timbaland to work with him on songs like “Stronger.”

This video shows Kanye and Timbaland going back and forth on the chorus for “Stronger,” debating a specific kick drum sound that Kanye doesn’t feel is big full enough yet. It’s spine-tingling to see the creative process for these two. It also shows a side of Kanye isn’t purely arrogant, as he is clearly trying to absorb as much knowledge from Timbo as possible as he explains why certain sounds work and others don’t.

The end of the video shows the two achieving the specific sound that Yeezy was craving, and the rest is history. 

WHEN: Recording session for G.O.O.D. Fridays
WHO: Charlie Wilson and Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def)

Taken during the G.O.O.D. Friday sessions, Charlie Wilson appears in the studio with Kanye West in this video as Kanye plays an alternate version of “Flashing Lights” off of Graduation. This one is particularly great because we see so many sides of Kanye at once. We have his musically-driven side singing (surprisingly well) an early hook to to “Flashing Lights” that’s much more upbeat than the final product. We have the arrogant Kanye, who responds to Charlie Wilson’s statement that the song is “another smoker,” with “Yes...that’s what it is.” We also have the goofy Kanye, just dancing to “Good Friday,” which Charlie Wilson was probably there to record.

Kanye hilariously doesn’t respond to Charlie Wilson’s half-joking question, “that joint for me?” so maybe “Bound 2” is a make up song for Mr. Wilson. At the end of the video we see the man formerly known as Mos Def (now Yasiin Bey) come into the studio and joke that he was going to popularize a dance move off of the alternate “Flashing Lights” song. He and Charlie Wilson act out the dance, throwing in some classic “church” moves.