As many of you know, the 10^th Anniversary of Kanye West’s College Dropout album was earlier this month. While re-listening to the album, I was immediately taken back to 2007. Back when I spent hours of his life searching for the latest tracks, most exclusive videos and any throwback hip-hop footage available online.

As I head bopped to the song “The Glory,” I started to reminisce over Old Kanye, before his momma passed, before “Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time,” before we were keeping up with him on the Kardashians. So in true 2007 fashion, I scoured the internet for Old Kanye footage.

I came across these videos that show Kanye working on music for himself as well as Rhymefest’s demo.  This was from a vintage episode of Channel Zero, the Chicago Hip-Hop show from the late ’90s/early ’00s. In this two part clip, you can hear an early, rough version of “Jesus Walks” that originally featured Rhymefest and a handful of unreleased records. The craziest part about the videos is that they  claim to take place in Jersey City. Wait Kanye West Recorded in Jersey City? How could I have not known this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThFqCle73vw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MDnc5fG5ZI

If you’re a Kanye West fan you know that back in the day he was evicted from his apartment in Chicago, packed his stuff up in a U-Haul and eventually ended up in Newark, NJ along with his mother. After hitting IKEA, he sets up his recording equipment and the first beat he produces in Newark is “Heart of the City.”

So maybe it’s not so hard to believe that Kanye worked in a studio in Jersey City. I mean he did drop in on an open mic show downtown a couple of years ago so he must have some ties to the city. Maybe the studio was someone else’s or maybe Kanye did have his own studio in town. Either way it’s dope af.

It’s crazy to think that Kanye recorded in Jersey City and it’s not that big of a deal. Maybe it was at the time. I must’ve been living under a rock but then again JC was a completely different city back then, and Kanye was a completely different person. If anyone can actually confirm that this really happened, please hit us up. We’d love to hear your story.