--- title: Kanye West Performs Early Version of Gold Digger in 2003 description: In a previously unseen video from 2003 canonical: https://time.com/3740771/kanye-west-john-legend-original-gold-digger-2003/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-11T17:48:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:33.452Z og:title: Watch Kanye West and John Legend Perform an Early Version of 'Gold Digger' og:description: In a previously unseen video from 2003 og:url: https://time.com/3740771/kanye-west-john-legend-original-gold-digger-2003/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Kanye West and John Legend Perform an Early Version of 'Gold Digger' twitter:description: In a previously unseen video from 2003 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Kanye West and John Legend Perform an Early Version of 'Gold Digger' ## Video: Five Things Kanye West Is Better At Than You [Watch (HLS stream): Five Things Kanye West Is Better At Than You](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PuUqNINz.m3u8) (1:50)  _Published 2015-07-14. We take a look at the top five thing Kanye West is amazing at ... according to Kanye._ by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Mar 11, 2015 5:48 PM UTC by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Mar 11, 2015 5:48 PM UTC Kanye West’s mega-hit “Gold Digger” came out in 2005, but this recently unearthed video shows the rapper performing a very early version all the way back in 2003\. This was a few months before his debut album _The College Dropout_ was released and he was still relatively unknown to the masses. The [video is from](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aauh22zcq9A) the second annual Dynamic Producer Conference and also features a young John Legend, who accompanies Kanye on piano. It’s a pretty bare-bones version of the song, but you can see the framework for the future hit. Oh, and as you can see, Kanye’s rocking a backpack and a very bright Reese’s shirt. So much has changed. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3740771/kanye-west-john-legend-original-gold-digger-2003/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3740771/kanye-west-john-legend-original-gold-digger-2003/"},"headline":"Watch Kanye West and John Legend Perform an Early Version of 'Gold Digger'","datePublished":"2015-03-11T17:48:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:33.452Z","description":"In a previously unseen video from 2003","url":"https://time.com/3740771/kanye-west-john-legend-original-gold-digger-2003/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrity"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3740771/kanye-west-john-legend-original-gold-digger-2003/","name":"Watch Kanye West and John Legend Perform an Early Version of 'Gold Digger'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Five Things Kanye West Is Better At Than You","description":"We take a look at the top five thing Kanye West is amazing at ... according to Kanye.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PuUqNINz/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-07-14T21:11:23.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PuUqNINz.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3740771/kanye-west-john-legend-original-gold-digger-2003/","duration":"PT1M50S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3740771/kanye-west-john-legend-original-gold-digger-2003/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```