Love him or hate him, Kanye West has been one of the current generation's most prominent members of pop culture. His influence branches out into fashion and design, but it all started with music. Kanye has a proven ear for the future, and his numerous styles have caused numerous waves in the sound of rap over the past fifteen years.
More directly, Kanye has been able to put on a handful of rappers that have gone on to have flourishing careers of their own. He changed the life of Tyler the Creator with one tweet, prompting the "Goblin" line, "Since Kanye tweeted telling people he's bumping all of my shit these motherfuckers think I'm supposed to live up to something?" He's also helped to break Chief Keef, Travi$ Scott and producers like Hudson Mohawke and Geseffelstein into mainstream culture. For more examples of how Yeezus has blessed other artists, proceed with the galleries.
CyHi The Prynce
As one of GOOD Music's staple artists, CyHi The Prynce was a pivotal member of Kanye's GOOD Friday tracks years back. "Looking For Trouble" and "So Appalled" are still getting spins around the world, and even though he hasn't released a proper full-length just yet, he has put out a strong collection of mixtapes over the past couple years.
Most recently, the relationship between CyHi and Kanye seemed rocky, but it was all part of a big troll. The two were in on the track, "Elephant In The Room," together, proving that the relationship will still give way to new music.
Travi$ Scott
Kanye West's Cruel Summer, in some ways, felt more like a compilation than a proper rap record, but years later when you go back and look at the roster Ye assembled, it's amazing to see how good his ear for talent is. Hudson Mohawke, Chief Keef, Mike Will Made It, 2 Chainz...the list goes on of careers that were impacted by the release. In addition to those artists, one Travi$ Scott was set on the path to stardom with the release of Cruel Summer.
The two remain colleagues, and recently collaborated on the doom metal stomper "Piss On Your Grave" from Scott's new album Rodeo.
Chief Keef
Kanye West put Chief Keef on big time when the massive remix of "I Don't Like" was chosen to close out Cruel Summer. Ever since, the Chicago artist had been on the tips of tongues everywhere, influencing an entire generation of rappers with the sound known as drill. The over-the-top trap production has been a major trend in rap's recent years, and in many ways it can be traced back to Keef as a major proprietor.
Hudson Mohawke
HudMo has been a renowned DJ for nearly fifteen years - half of his life. While he grinded at mixing and scratching with technical capabilities, it wasn't until he made "Mercy" with Kanye West that his career really took off in the eyes of the mainstream. Nowadays, HudMo can sell out massive rooms and is considered to be in the upper echelon of experimental rap producers. He's collaborated with Lil Wayne, Drake, Pusha T, and Azealia Banks, but Yeezy was the first one to discover him from the hip hop world.
Hudson Mohawek has also helped to produce West's tracks "The One," "To The World," "I am a God," and more.
The second sentence of Big Sean's Wikipedia page says, "Big Sean signed with Kanye West's GOOD Music in 2007, Def Jam Recordings in 2008 and Roc Nation in 2014," so you can see the kind track Yeezy sent him on. After three GOOD Music mixtapes, Big Sean released the Finally Famous album. The record was largely produced by Ye's mentor No I.D., and included the collaborative cut "Marvin Gaye and Chardonnay."
This year, Big Sean scored his first overall number one album in Dark Sky Paradise, executive produced by Kanye West. Kanye's voice is featured on two tracks and he has producer credits on four of them, so these two are still staying close and continuing to help each other's careers.
On "I Don't Like," Kanye ended his verse by saying, "Chief Keef, King Louie, this is Chi, right?" Changing King Louie's life forever with a quick shout out is no easy feat, but Kanye's clout is that serious. Louie said, "It was crazy, because you don’t think them type of guys on that level hear your music just coming from the hood," but apparently Kanye always has an ear to the streets.
The two linked up properly on the Yeezus cut "Send It Up," which was also produced by our next subject, Gesaffelstein...
Gesaffelstein
The French techno producer/DJ has been releasing music since 2008, but there was a point where the blogosphere and mainstream culture really picked up on Gesaffelstein. Unsurprisingly, that point was when the producer was credited twice on Yeezus alongside names like Daft Punk and West himself.
Gesaffelstein helped to bring that dark techno sound to Yeezy's last proper full-length, and just a few months after Yeezus released, he put out his own debut full-length Aleph, which was picked up by a crowd that otherwise would have probably overlooked the hard beats.
Vic Mensa
Another Chicago native that Kanye helped bring to notoriety is Vic Mensa. "Wolves" put Vic Mensa in front of a whole new set of eyes, and when the two collaborated on "U Mad" a couple months later, it was clear that his popularity was taken to a new level as a result of Kanye's help. Mensa said of the relationship, "I’ve loved working with Kanye. I’ve always looked up to him, so you know being in a place where I can get his real opinion about the work that I do is amazing."
2 Chainz
Tauheed Epps had success under the name Tity Boi before 2 Chainz ever existed, but it wasn't until "Mercy" dropped that 2 Chainz became a household name. The song showcased Epps more than anyone else on the track, and he bodied his verse. Ever since, 2 Chainz has been a go-to feature ever since. Kanye even tweeted around that time, "2 Chainz is charging 100k for a verse now cause he's G.O.O.D!!!!!!" Kanye helped Chainz's career get even bigger with their collaboration "Birthday Song."
Tyler The Creator
As outlined in the introduction, Tyler's life was changed after Kanye merely tweeted about the rising star years ago. Tyler reflected on "Goblin," and ever since the two have had a bit of a budding relationship. In 2013, Kanye was quoted praising Tyler, going as far as to call him his mentor. The two appeared together on Tyler's most recent album, Cherry Bomb, via the track "Smuckers."
