Kanye West has an influence that no other artist has reached in their life. Ever since the early 2000s, West has been an extremely prominent figure in the world of hip-hop. There are plenty of hip-hop artists who have completely changed the landscape of hip-hop, including people like Drake, Kendrick, Lil Wayne and more. All of these artists have changed something about how hip-hop is shaped, but do others think that they’re more influential than Kanye West?
West’s influence in music as a whole is undeniable. He’s influenced people from all different industries including music and fashion. Artists who’ve been influenced by West include Travis Scott, Drake, Adele, and more.
After asking a student from Pahrump Valley High School, De’Lon Tighe, on his opinions about West’s influence on other hip-hop artists with his album “808s & Heartbreak”, Tighe stated, “Drake was like a direct product of that, Kid Cudi was a product of that, Juice WRLD was a product of that. I think this is when he truly reached his true form.” “808s & Heartbreak” isn’t his best album to numerous people, but many people can agree on how influential the album is, with everything it’s done for music since its release. At this point in his career, West had already been a big figure in hip-hop, but this album extended his reach from just hip-hop to many more genres of music.
Despite “808s and Heartbreak” being his most influential album, there was a point before that when his influence began to shine. The point in his career that sparked his influence and led him away from just a regular hip-hop artist was the release of ‘Graduation’. Tighe had an interesting take on this topic, “But Kanye changed the game, he actually got successful and beat out all the other hip-hop artists by using ‘Graduation’ by talking about his feelings and love, and that’s when he started becoming influential.” “Graduation” was the spark in his career that truly began his reign in the music industry. “Graduation” was different from all the other albums that were coming out around that time; it truly shined as something that would change the whole game. It wasn’t until later when he began his fashion influence.
Without West, hip-hop wouldn’t be the genre it is now. Hip-Hop has changed so much as a genre, from the 70s, to the 90s, and to today, and it has continued to grow and shift as it grew larger; by the 90s, hip-hop was at its highest peak. That was until the early 2000s, everything began to grow stale, songs started to sound the same, until West began to release music that shifted away from that. Another student from Pahrump Valley High School, Uzziel Johnson, also had a similar statement on this: “He changed the rap genre from rapping about crime to just being able to rap about life and stuff.” West didn’t focus on what everybody else did; he did his own thing, and that resulted in everybody following him because of how different he was. West has always pioneered hip-hop by being himself. Every time hip-hop changed because of him is because he continues to stay true to himself.
The hip-hop world known today wouldn’t exist without Kanye West. West is a man that paves the way for others by doing things his way. Many other artists have influenced hip-hop, but none of them have done it as substantially as West has. Without the influence of West and his music, listeners of hip-hop today wouldn’t have the amazing catalog of songs that comes with the genre. Next time you’re listening to Kanye West, just think about how much he’s done for the genre.
