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Talib Kweli Recalls the First Time he met a Young Kanye West

Joining the guys over at the Drink Champs podcast, Brooklyn rapper Talib Kweli reminisced about the first time he met a young Kanye West, and the drive and vision that the producer had well before any record deal. Meeting him in the recording sessions for his 2002 album Quality, Kanye went to the studio to actually meet Mos Def and play him some beats. Instead, Talib jumped on the opportunity and the rest is history.

“I said play me the beats, I’m working on an album. Every beat that Kanye played me… made it onto my album (referring to Get By, Guerilla Monsoon Rap and Good To You). I couldn’t believe how good these beats was because I had never heard of him. How have I have never heard of you and these beats and this quality?”

Kweli continued to reveal that before any kind of record deals, Kanye already had his first two albums planned out. In the first month they met, Talib was played a completed Jesus Walks as well as Hey Mam and was even told that he was going to call his debut album College Dropout, with Late Registration to follow.

Agreeing that Kanye was truly a genius, he explained, “Kanye had the hot beats but he was trying to sell himself as an artist.” He knew where he was going, he had a vision and was completely motivated to fulfil his dream, and that is completely amazing. Obviously we all know Kanye is now one of the most influential artists of this decade, so it’s amazing to see how humbling his roots really are, watch the full interview below.

Image: Hot New Hip Hop