15 Rare Student ID Photos of Musicians Before Their Big Break

Before tours and radio play, there was a lot of homework and a student ID or a campus badge with a flash that never flatters. These names that later would fill arenas were once laminated and scanned at the door.

This is a look back at musicians before the leap, an ordinary image that proves that they were just students with a schedule and a dream before fame reached them.

1. Psy

2. Jeffrey Lewis

3. Radric Davis

4. Sterling Morrison

5. Lamont Coleman

6. Ed Sheeran

7. Jarvis Cocker

8. Rivers Cuomo

9. M.I.A

10. Drake

11. Lupe Fiasco

12. Ariana Grande

13. Cardi B

14. Charlie Puth

15. Ludacris

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These student IDs read like small moments before the big futures. For more of these “before it all” moments, keep scrolling through these Yearbook Faces of Country Icons Before the Spotlight, or these Yearbook Faces of ’80s–’00s Rap Icons. You can also enjoy these 20 Celeb Stories From the 1980s.