This Newly Unearthed Video Shows Kanye West Rapping in 1996

— -- Before he declared himself king and married Kim, Kanye West was just another talented teenager in a record store.

An early video of the rapper performing at the opening of the since shuttered Fat Beats store in New York surfaced on Thursday.

The year was 1996.

In the clip, a young Yeezus wears an ill-fitting polo and proves he can grow facial hair. But behind the mustache is a flash of the future West.

His rhymes are impressive. He declares his lyrics "mad ironic like Alanis Morissette." And he stops only when someone physically wrenches the microphone from his grip.