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A previously unreleased video from 2003 as well as Kanye West's former DJ A-Trak have shed fresh light on the history of one of West's greatest hits.
Although the track itself wasn't released until 2005, video surfaced online yesterday of West performing the track at the Annual Dynamic Producer Conference in New York two years earlier.
The key differences between '18 Days' and the final recording are the following : how much West's dress sense has changed (Lanvin don't do Reese's Peanut Butter t-shirts), the fact that West's narrator adds in "He killed that bitch / They gave him 25 years" into the lyrics and the fact that John Legend fills in for Jamie Foxx and provides a completely different chorus.
Watch: Kanye West perform Gold Digger in 2003 with John Legend
In related news, West's former DJ A-Trak has revealed some of the stories behind key West tracks on Genius.com. Explaining that he acted as West's tastemaker, he explained that he helped work out the signature scratch routine at a festival in Washington. "We got back together to play the Sasquatch Festival, and were catching up in the trailer. He said, 'Let me play you something. I put my vocals on all these songs.' For 'Gold Digger,' he had this rough version, but it felt too pop to him. He wanted to give it some hip-hop cred. I had an idea for a scratch, for the part where he raps “Get down girl, go ‘head, get down.” I knew which sample to use."
Although he was over budget for recording the album, West decided to debut the track last minute. "I ended up live-auditioning. I pulled up the sample for “get down” and I scratched during the choruses, and as soon as we got off stage he was like 'Alright, you’re coming to LA, we gotta record this. I’ll pay for the flights, I don’t care.'" A-Trak also tellingly reveals that West had never heard of Daft Punk in 2006.
West is expected to release his new album So Help Me God in the next few months.
