The next time you doubt that celebrities are just like us, take one look at a recently surfaced video clip of a baby-faced Kanye West. Before he represented an untouchable cool to hypebeasts, rap fans, and Yeezy-loving fashion bloggers, Kanye was just as stylistically misguided and as easily swayed by Y2K-era fashion as the rest of us. He wore braces. He rode a scooter. At least, that was his M.O. when he freestyled for the camera on September 22, 2000 in Chicago.
The rapper looks nearly unrecognizable in the clip as he raps for a circle of friends. But, while his purple shiny jacket might seem a far way off from the strategically tattered athleisure he's a fan of these days, one thing is just as familiar: his confidence. In his freestyle, the Chicago native shouts out his deep knowledge of the "price of Coogi" — the knitted sweater brand whose Jackson Pollock-like designs were worn by '90s figureheads like the Notorious B.I.G. — and drops some current Kanye-level boasts. "Kanye more important that Michael Jordan," he says. "Got this rap game locked you can call the warden."
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Of course, years later Kanye West would apologize to his icon M.J. — although when he finally did last February it was over a lyric from another song, "FACTS," off his recent album The Life of Pablo, where he raps, "Yeezy, Yeezy, Yeezy just jumped over Jumpman." "I'm sorry Michael Jordan I love and respect you," he tweeted, "My beef was with Mark Parker. I respect you so much!"
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Related: Kanye West Is Launching MAKEUP
