From "Dreams" To "Encore" To "The Corner"

For kicks, BBC Radio 1′s Tim Westwood has revealed a 2005 Kanye West freestyle set to the Game‘s “Dreams,” Jay-Z‘s “Encore” and Common‘s “The Corner,” rap hits that West produced himself. West had just released his sophomore album Late Registration, but as his freestyle shows, he’s long known exactly what he wanted to achieve with his music.

Before “New Slaves,” West was rhyming of “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” — as in, how he was torn between gifting and protesting against them. He calls a woman a ho, only to apologize profusely. (He’s never been perfect.) And in a string of advice to rappers, he suggests enlisting singers for the hook — like Alicia Keys, or “light-skinned girls with braids, acting like they got it made.”(He did leap on a remix of “If I Ain’t Got You,” which kinda counts.) Speaking of advice: “As far as making your songs, you’re all wrong / doing everything that everybody else be on.” More »