Roc-A-Fella Records based out of New York came along around 1996 but didn’t really start making noise until ’98. It was something about Roc-A-Fella that I identified heavily with. Maybe it was because I was from the inner city and all of the artists on that label were from the inner city too. Maybe it was because the Mid-West and the East Coast had a lot of things in common. I don’t know, but I was hooked, the music had me. Then my sophomore year of college a friend of mine handed me a CD and said, “yo, this that Kanye West mixtape.” I asked him, “Who is Kanye West?” He immediately looked back at me wit the screw face and said, “What?”
My friend just handed me the CD and said, “Go find out.” So I took the CD, went back to my dorm and popped it in. I listened to one song, one song only and immediately called up my friend. I told him I needed to know who, what, when and where! He explained to me that he was the go-to producer for Roc-a-fella and he decided to start rapping. I immediately went back through my collection of music, all the Roc-A-Fella artist and CDs. This kid Kanye West was behind 99% of the songs I kept on repeat for the last couple years. Anything I considered having soul, son put his hands on. Hits like, Jay-Z’s “This Cant Be Life”, “Heart of the City”, “Never Change”, Beanie Sigel’s “Nothing Like It”, Freeway’s “Hear This Song”, State Property’s “Got Nowhere”, Scareface’s “Guess Who’s Back”, T.I.’s “Doin My Job” and even Talib Kweli’s “Get By,” all Kanye West. But it was hearing that one song on his mixtape that I felt I truly knew who this guy was. The song was called ‘Homecoming.” Completely blew me away.
Kanye went on to win several Grammy’s and sell millions of records. But along with the stardom, fortune and fame, came trial and tribulation. He still makes good music, but in my opinion, the Kanye I knew is long gone. The College Dropout Kanye, the hungry ‘Ye. That guy is no more. But that’s just a part of growing in the music industry. You strive to reach success but its that very same success engulfs you and you can no longer be who you used to be. It’s cool though, I’ve come to terms with THAT West being gone. I’m just cool with knowing I got in on the ground floor. I got to witness a movement. Those were some of the best years of my life. Them were my coming of age years. I got a lifetime of memories to those times, and Yeezy made the soundtrack.
But you know I wasn’t go leave y’all without the music. Remember where you were when it dropped? Roc on… "Original Homecoming"
"Never Change - Jay-Z"
"Guess Who's Back - Scareface"
"Got Nowhere - State Property feat. Beanie Sigel & Freeway"
"Get By - Talib Kweli"
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