Hip-hop’s past is littered with secret histories, scenes and stories and sounds that never got their full hearing, remembered only by a few. Thanks to the Internet, though, secret histories aren’t so secret anymore. Those stories are now rescued, amplified and recontextualized by a new wave of agents who are fluent in the past, and who use it to build a more creative future.

ASAP Yams, who died Sunday at 26, was one such person. Born Steven Rodriguez, he was an owner of ASAP Worldwide records, and the creative force behind the rise of the Harlem rapper ASAP Rocky, one of hip-hop’s most promising young stars.

But Yams had influence well beyond his immediate circle. Before he was an executive, he was a crucial modern-day tastemaker thanks to his Internet presence. His blog RNT — the full title can’t be printed — was an early warning system for emerging hip-hop that was both stylish and rugged, from all corners of the country. Yams was a bridge: between the Internet and the streets, between regions, between generations.

His taste was virtually impeccable, the right combination of fealty to the genre’s history and brash, forward-looking disruption. He helped set the blueprint for contemporary polyglot hip-hop taste, taking cues from the traditions of New York, Los Angeles, the Midwest and the South. It’s a blend that now feels commonplace, but even four years ago qualified as radical.