Gap says it's 'excited to welcome Kanye back' for its Yeezy collab after the rapper worked in a store as a teen

• Kanye West is teaming up with Gap to sell a new Yeezy line in stores.
• West actually worked in a Gap store in Chicago when he was a teen.
• He's talked about the experience in various interviews and even rapped about it in the song "Spaceship."

Kanye West is coming back to Gap.

The rapper and fashion mogul has inked a deal that will bring his Yeezy brand to Gap stores and Gap.com. The new Yeezy Gap line will be live in 2021.

But, this isn't West's first time working with Gap. As a teen, he worked at a Gap store in Chicago.

"We are excited to welcome Kanye back to the Gap family as a creative visionary, building on the aesthetic and success of his YEEZY brand and together defining a next-level retail partnership," Mark Breitbard, global head of Gap Brand, said in a press release about the partnership.

West reflected on his time at Gap in an article he wrote for Paper magazine in 2015: "It's funny that I worked at the Gap in high school, because in my past 15 years it seems like that's the place I stood in my creative path — to be the gap, the bridge."

He also noted how working there got him interested in clothing, even if he couldn't necessarily afford it.

"When I was working at the Gap at 15, I don't think I had any desire to actually make clothes, but I always felt like that's what I wanted to be around. I loved the fabrics, I loved the colors, I loved the proportions," he wrote.

"Abercrombie was too expensive for me and the Gap was too expensive for me. Even though I worked at the Gap, I didn't get enough hours to get a discount because I was a part-time employee, because I went to high school."

Also in 2015, when Gap's creative director position was open, West told Style.com that he'd like to be the "Steve Jobs of Gap."

West also raps about his time at Gap in his song "Spaceship," from his album "The College Dropout":

Let's go back, back to the Gap
Look at my check—wasn't no scratch
So if I stole, wasn't my fault
Yeah, I stole—never got caught

They take me to the back and pat me
Asking me about some khakis
But let some Black people walk in
I bet you they show off their token blackie
Oh, now they love Kanye
"Let's put him all in the front of the store"

West is the sole owner of the Yeezy brand, which was valued at $2.9 billion by Bank of America in 2019.