Drake's Producer Praises Kanye

Drake's producer, 40 Shebib, acknowledged the tremendous influence that rapper/producer Kanye West has had on his career. Drake's music has been compared to Kanye's 808s & Heartbreak album, and Shebib admits that Yeezy's sound is a point-of-reference.

"I look up to that guy like crazy. I always have and I always will," 40 said. "That's someone who's carved out a sound for rap music a couple of times, who has really influenced and changed the game as an individual. It would be crazy to say there's competition." He added that people should understand the difference between stealing another artist's style and being influenced by him. "You're supposed to be a hybrid. When you got T.I. and Nas and Jay-Z and Wayne and Kanye and Eminem, all these different types of rappers from different places and so on and so forth, I would expect a couple of years after that a new rapper would comes out who incorporates all of those people. Because that's the evolution of it and that's what will always happen, so I don't even look at it as like biting or stealing or this or that," 40 said.