Kanye West

USA, 1996–now

American rapper and producer (b. 1977) from Chicago, who came up making beats for other people and spent a career refusing to stay in any one style. The College Dropout put sped-up soul samples at the centre of mainstream rap; 808s & Heartbreak and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy each reset what the following decade sounded like.

MusicRoots documents 5 artists who influenced Kanye West and 0 artists Kanye West influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced Kanye West?

• No I.D. — The producer who taught him. West was fifteen; his mother asked No I.D. to show him how beats were made, and he did.
• RZA — The chipmunk-soul trick — an old R&B record pitched up until the singer squeaks — is RZA's, and West has said outright that he borrowed it.
• A Tribe Called Quest — West calls them his favourite rap group ever, and the warm, unhurried soul underneath his early production is theirs.
• Wu-Tang Clan — One of the acts that inspired the teenage West — and, in his own framing, one that pushed boundaries and still sold records.
• Fugees — Part of the mid-nineties soul-sampling hip-hop West's early production echoes, with Tribe and the Pharcyde.