DJ Eclipse continues his weekly treat of digging into the vault and pulling out extremely rare footage of some of today’s most vaunted MCs freestyling early in their careers. After showcasing, a spirited Kanye West rapping in 1996, here’s a clip of Common (then Common Sense) OBLITERATING the mic, off the top, at Fat Beats after a quick verse from Lord Sear–all over DJ Premier’s classic “You Know My Steez” track. This is how it should be done…Check out the video and what Eclipse had to say about that day below.

Here’s what DJ Eclipse had to say about the video:

“Here’s a clip from Common’s Fat Beats NYC in-store for “One Day It’ll All Make Sense”. The in-store was actually a few days before the album was released so we only had his single for sale that day. We were also pushing No I.D.’s “The Black Album” (w/Dug Infinite) which had come out early that week. This Common album was the last time that No I.D. and Com would do an album together until 2011. Like most in-stores at Fat Beats it was never limited to just the artist who’s in-store it was. Many times other artists would pop in and perform and on this day Lord Sear (Stretch & Bobbito/Shade 45) had stopped by and got on the mic with Common. Shout out to Mista Sinista from the X-Men/X-Ecutioners who not only did all the scratches on Common’s earlier albums, but was present this day to provide the music. In fact, his album “X-Pressions” with the rest of The X-Ecutioners had dropped earlier that week as well.”

Related: Time Travel To ’96 & See Kanye West Rapping At Fat Beats In New York (Video)