Rappers React to Kanye West's Claim He 'Invented' All Music Styles: ‘I Created The Weeknd’s Genre, Trav, Drake’s'

According to Kanye West, he "invented every style of music" during the previous 20 years. Naturally, rappers do not agree.

The extravagant claim was made by the Runaway rapper and fellow hip-hop musician Ty Dolla $ign during a joint interview.

"I done invented every style of music of the past 20 years," Kanye shared directly to industry heavyweight Big Boy, on his YouTube channel BigBoyTV.

Kanye West Said He "Created" All Sorts of Genre

"I created this genre. I created (The) Weeknd's genre, Trav(is Scott), Drake... I'm gonna go 'head and say it, with all love, Future and (Young) Thug also, because of the autotune album, 808s (& Heartbreaks), if you think about it," he also said.

"Now everyone, they added whatever it was to it."

Naturally, the remarks sparked a larger internet discussion about Kanye's extensive musical influence.

Rappers and fans alike swiftly refuted 46-year-old Kanye's assertions.

Rapper Kid Cudi, who collaborated with Kanye on 808s & Heartbreak made an elaborate dig at the latter by posting a screenshot of the album's Wikipedia pages that stated, "Kid Cudi's sound is what inspired and led Kanye West to create his cathartic '808s & Heartbreak'."

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"Ye was definitely influential but y'all gone stop disrespecting T-Pain," one fan expressed on X/Twitter.

"He needs more props for his influence!," another said.

Even while his influence is evident, some people found this kind of haughty flex offensive. On March 16, Boosie Badazz made the argument, "NOT ALL GENRES NOT EVERY STYLE," on X, formerly known as Twitter. "NOT BOOSIE MUSIC."

Some fans then took the time to debate Ye's impact on musical "genres" online.

Kanye's Influence

According to XXL Mag, clearly, the answer is no when taken literally. Dubstep, Afrobeats, drill, Latin trap, and many more genres that have emerged since Kanye first appeared on the scene two decades ago are not inventions of his.

The magazine however would give some credit to the controversial rapper. According to it, he did, however, alter the way that rap is generally associated with commercial music.

The magazine elaborated that Ye changed hip-hop production to a choppier, more sample-based sound with his 2004 first album The College Dropout, which would subsequently become the standard in rap. He also gained notoriety for pitching things up in a "Chipmunk Soul" manner, which became a tried-and-true method for rappers like Drake, J. Cole, and Chance The Rapper.

Rap's accessibility to the Billboard charts was altered a year later on Late Registration by Ye's experiments with R&B and G-Funk, as "Gold Digger" occupied the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 list for ten weeks in a row.

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Kanye West