From Blueprints To Fingerprints: The Influence Of Kanye West Changed The Course Of Music History

When Kanye debuted The College Dropout in 2004 no one, except maybe “Yeezus” himself, could’ve predicted that West would become arguably the most influential person in hip-hop a decade later. To date, he’s dropped seven platinum albums, won 21(!) Grammy Awards and been responsible for an untold numbers of hits. As he developed on the mic and behind the boards as a producer, Kanye laid the foundation for what would become the modern rap landscape. Complex Magazine compiled a list of the songs of the year in hip-hop circa 1980 to the present and West’s presence looms all over the last third of the list:

Kanye’s Complex History

From 2005 to 2013 Mr. West had arguably the song of the year four times, which isn’t a shocker considering he is a rap superstar. But what is so amazing is how he was able to do it while being the driving force behind many of the biggest acts in hip-hop today, all while maintaining his own individual artistic identity. Back in the early 2000’s when Kanye was getting his start producing for Roc-A-Fella artists, an arty-smart dude with a backpack would’ve stayed on the periphery in mainstream rap. Kanye in a lot of ways broke the mold of what a rapper could be and be about. Yeezy has become an ambassador to what I would call “millennial rap”, which is that a rapper can be popular while being a gangsta, an academic, a boss bawse, a hopeless romantic, the life of the party or a lonely weirdo.

G.O.O.D Music

West’s influence has reached far and wide across the landscape of contemporary rap music and you have to start off with his own label. Current and former members of the Getting Out Our Dreams stable are as diverse a group of rappers, singers and rap-singers as one could imagine.

• Common: The conscious MC saw a return to rap relevance by joining GOOD Music at its inception in 2004 and teaming with West to put out the critically acclaimed Be in 2005. Com’sense earned Grammy nominations, the right to be on Serena Williams’ arm and cold hard cash during his G.O.O.D music tenure. Common left the label in 2011 to start his own and become many a background character in (and a star in some) films while still working on his music.
• Kid Cudi: A weird artsy kid from Cleveland went to NY, hooked up with a weird artsy dude from Chicago and has never looked back. He’d already created an underground buzz before hooking up with Yeezy and GOOD but went to a much higher plain with his debut Man on the Moon: End of the Day in 2009. Cudder went on to put out more albums and more hits and, like his often narrator Common, left the label went onto become at least a part time actor while still putting out music.
• Pusha T: At first glance “King Push” wouldn’t seem to fit the mold of a G.O.O.D artist— he actually seems closer to the antithesis of one. He even mentions it on “New God Flow” when Pusha said, “They said Pusha ain’t fit with the umbrella/But I was good with the Yay as a wholesaler/I think it’s good that ‘Ye got a blow dealer/A hot temper, matched with a cold killer”. Pusha T is a street guy and fills that hole in the roster for the “grammy family” and has shown he can rhyme with anyone. With his solo debut My Name is my Name reaching to #4 on the Billboard charts, Pusha showed he can be a star on his own, and elevated his profile while maintaining his street stylings thanks his affiliation with from Kanye.
• John Legend: Only Las Vegas has gotten more people down the aisle in the past five years than this soulful singer. Legend has won nine Grammys, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award, making him the second most decorated G.O.O.D artist next to Kanye himself. Since the debut of Get Lifted Legend has put out generally acclaimed music, and harkens back to a “motown” style of r&b when people actually sang songs that had meaning. As a songwriter, singer, musician and actor, Legend is a true talent and one of the most successful acts on the label.
• Big Sean: For my money, which isn’t to say there is a lot of, the “Finally Famous” rapper has had the song of the year this year in either the exceptionally petty “IDFWU” or the Kanye and Drake laced “Blessings” (or Kanye and Quentin Miller laced…whichever you choose to believe). While labelmate Pusha T may have been enhanced by joining the G.O.O.D Music family, Sean Don is the heir apparent. He rebounded from the sophomore slump album Hall of Fame to recreate some of the magic found on Finally Famous and appears ready move up a weight class with his most recent album Dark Sky Paradise. Big Sean isn’t a “technically sound” rapper; he smashes through beats like they are the Spanish announce table at a WWE pay-per-view, but you can’t deny that he brings life to whatever track he is on as well as the stage.

That’s just a cursory glance at the G.O.O.D music team and doesn’t even mention the producers under the umbrella like No ID, Travis Scott, Hit Boy (formerly) and of course Kanye himself.

Drake & Nicki Minaj

Outside the G.O.O.D Music team, you can see how Kanye helped create room for many of the biggest names in rap. The children caught in the Young Money Cash Money divorce both owe some success to North West’s Daddy.

In 2010 when Minaj was just starting to gain traction with her debut of Pink Friday, West came out as a huge supporter saying on Hot 97,

“I think she has the most potential out of everyone to be the #2 rapper of all-time ’cause nobody’s gonna be bigger than Eminem. Eminem’s the #1 rapper of all-time”

That same year Kanye tapped her to join him, Hov and Rick Ross on the horror-themed “Monster”. To say Minaj stole the song would be the understatement of the year. The rookie absolutely obliterated the track, which was produced by Kanye by the way. She came out swinging for the fences with lines like,

“And I’m all up all up all up in the bank with the funny face/And if I’m fake I ain’t notice cause my money ain’t!/So let me get this straight wait I’m the rookie/But my features and my shows ten times your pay/Fifty K for a verse no album out!”

On “Monster”, Nicki proved that she could rhyme with the best of hip-hop’s elite and began her journey to becoming “the highest sellin’ female rapper for the record.”

Kanye never offered up grand proclamations for Mr. OVO, but with the 2008 album 808’s and Heartbreak, he created the template that Drake has used to become the face of hip-hop. Few artists, especially rappers, could’ve pulled off a transition to “pop art” like Kanye did. West redirected the game when on 808’s he ditched his traditional approach for more auto tune enhanced singing focused on topics like love and loss, shame, pain and the loneliness that success can bring. Kanye was a shooting star against the grain in 2008, sending ripples throughout the game that still resonate today. Drake even went on record as saying Kanye’s music was the most influential on his sound and it’s pretty obvious this still rings true today.

Drake and Nicki Minaj are bonafide stars. While I contend that hip-hop would be better off if they both put more effort into actually rapping, they’re ascension to the top of the charts began with some influence and a major cosign (either directly or indirectly) from Mr. West.

J.Cole and Kendrick Lamar

These two young MCs are the class of “millennial rap”. They are socially conscious, introspective and undeniably talented artists in an era where lyrics are undervalued, if not completely overlooked by mainstream radio. Whether you like them or not, Hollywood Cole and King Kunta represent what was one of the best parts of Kanye West.

Ye has never been the lyricist these two are, however he is the same dude who had radio stations playing, “Jesus Walks” wherein he starts the song with “We at war with terrorism, racism, but most of all we are at war with ourselves,” which is the crux of K Dot’s To Pimp A Butterfly album which dropped earlier this year.

And J.Cole famously “Let Nas Down” by sampling Kanye’s “Workout Plan”, which as Cole put it, was the worst song on his favorite album, The College Dropout, and made the hit song that got Jay-Z and the folks at Roc Nation to put out his debut album Cole World: The Sideline Story.

It’s not that Yeezy helped them become the great rappers they are, but he helped pave the way for there to be great rappers who are socially conscious and an economically viable enterprise. And as J.Cole showed, the music business is about making money, not making art.

Jay Z

Hov is to rap is what Kanye has been to the people listed above. When Jigga spit, “I’m not a businessman I’m a business, man/Let me handle my business, damn” it was 100% facts only. Shawn Carter has 15 platinum albums; he’s stood by as the times and trends have changed and remained the standard bearer for getting money in the rap game. Jay Z is the epitome of the hustle. He’s been the president, an owner, a label, a philanthropist, a trophy husband and now taking over the sports business world!

What influence could a guy who considers Hov his “big brother”, West, have for a literal living legend?

Simple— he makes him try.

The hard, for some, truth is that Jay Z hasn’t really tried on an album since The Black Album, his supposed swan song…that was 2003!!! Jay Z was never really going to walk away from the game, but he mostly toyed with it by showing flashes of his former glory over the years. But when it came to songs with Kanye West (and to a lesser extent Jeezy and Rick Ross) he normally brought the energy of a much younger MC. “Diamonds Sierra Leone”, “Never Let Me Down”, “Clique” and “Hate” all saw Hov in increasingly rare form, and don’t forget the songs Kanye produced for Jay over the years.

All of which culminated in the underrated, in this writer’s opinion, and so beautifully pro Black Watch the Throne album in 2011. Two titans of music did something huge for the culture by simply showing that it can be done; here’s hoping that we can get these “all-star team up” albums in the future (cough J. Cole, cough Kendrick Lamar).

What Jay Z has done in his epic history is give everyone a figure to ascribe to; what Kanye has done is give rappers the ability to ascribe to being anything they want to be while getting to the top, which is why he is the most influential rapper in the game today.