We all know that Kendrick Lamar has been killing it for years, but every once in a while something pops up that reminds us just how long his talent went under-appreciated. A recently-resurfaced video of Kendrick freestyling over the beat to Kanye West’s “So Appalled” in 2009 is a perfect example.

Kendrick titled the freestyle “A Little Appalled,” and he kicked things off by dropping a reference to Eminem—an artist he would later work with on The Marshall Mathers LP 2 track “Love Game”:

I might spit some intricate shit for retards not to get

But really I’m just as rude as Marshall Mathers

Is that a contradiction? He contradicting himself again?

Of course that’s a contradiction, the fuck you think life is?

We not like Christ is

We all want ices and devices to make the bitches say I like this

He also touched on issues of police brutality and the influence rappers have on young people:

I used to want a champagne two door Tahoe

Until I seen that same truck shot by five-o

Dead with his eyes closed, y'all should’ve seen him

Off a gallon of cough syrup, but rifles had leaned him

That’s why these tough rappers man I don’t believe ‘em

Y'all wanna be 'em, I wanna grab bats and beat 'em

The video was recorded before Kendrick dropped The Kendrick Lamar EP in December 2009. This project—along with his 2010 mixtape O.verly D.edicated—was one of the first breakout moments of his career. Clearly he’d been honing his rap skills for a while.

Kanye West’s version of “So Appalled” actually didn’t drop until Sept. 24, 2010 as part of his G.O.O.D. Fridays series. However a version of the song leaked in early November 2009. Since Kendrick talks about The Kendrick Lamar EP—which came out on Dec. 31, 2009— in the future tense, it’s likely that he’s rapping over the leaked version of the “So Appalled” beat sometime in November or December 2009. This means Kendrick’s version of “So Appalled” actually dropped almost a year before Kanye West’s did.

You can check out the freestyle above and read all the lyrics to Kendrick Lamar’s “A Little Appalled” on Genius now.