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When it comes down to the question of who has had the most influence over the longest period of time, the answer is Kanye West, though. There really had not ever been another artist in the history of the genre whose prime had lasted 12 years, and spanned 9 critically acclaimed hit albums.
Not even OutKast quite managed that, as their early work was pretty street, and they didn't start flippin' scripts until after they really caught some mainstream success. Tribe had a pretty perfect flow of albums, but none of them were as crazy popular as any of West's. 2pac sold tons of albums but the poor guy died before he could really move on the next level as an artist.
Kanye has defied the laws of hip-hop, whether you like him or not. And I'm only putting Tribe and Pav ahead of him because they influenced him so much. I think he's probably going to have to retire from releasing solo albums soon, or he'll just be tempting fate. He could still make music as a producer, but I'd rather see him go out on a high note than push on until he's dry.
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