It was 88 who had Kanye networking and doing interviews/ freestyles on all of the college stations (wnyu/whpc/fordham/hofstra/sitting in the cut on those old Lord Sear & Bobbito fam-a-lam shows, underground hip hop stations all around the country.
These cats really don't how hard Kanye had to network just to get certified before he became the 1B producer at Rocafella.
Back when he was making basic beats like this
(Side note history , he actually pitched that beat YEARS before before Mos got on it in 2001).