Kanye West is a master at Hip-Hop sampling, and it’s prevalent throughout his beats, which are often soulful. K.West has made many classics for himself and for many other artists. In no particular order, here are 20 of the best Kanye West beats.

1. T.I. ft. Kanye West & Kid Cudi – Welcome To The World

2. T.I. ft. Jay-Z, Lil Wayne & Kanye West – Swagga Like Us

3. Shyne – More Or Less

4. Lupe Fiasco – The Cool

5. Common – The Game

6. Common – The People

7. Common – Be

8. Common – The Corner

9. Common – Southside

10. Knoc Turn’Al – Muzik

11. Freeway – Hear The Song

12. Beanie Sigel – Nothing Like It

13. The Game – Angel

14. Jay-Z ft. Kanye West & Rihanna – Run This Town

15. Jay-Z – Encore

16. Jay-Z – Takeover

17. Jay-Z – Izzo (H.O.V.A)

18. Jay-Z & Beyonce – 03′ Bonnie & Clyde

19. Nas – Poppa Was A Playa

20. Kanye West ft. Kid Cudi, Rihanna & Nicki Minaj – All Of The Lights

21. Kanye West – Stronger

22. Kanye West ft. Mos Def & Freeway – Two Words

23. Kanye West ft. Young Jeezy – Amazing

24. Kanye West ft. Young Jeezy – Can’t Tell Me Nothing

25. Kanye West – Flashing Lights

26. Kanye West – Diamonds From Sierra Leone

27. Kanye West – Jesus Walks

28. Alicia Keys – You Don’t Know My Name

29. Twista – Overnight Celebrity

30. Twista ft. Kanye West & Jamie Foxx – Slow Jamz

Did You Know?

Kanye West was born in Atlanta Georgia, and raised in a middle-class section of Chicago.

His father was a former member of the Black Panther Party, an African-American revolutionary socialist organization.

He started writing poetry when he was just five years old.

Kanye West lived in Nanjing, China for a short time because his Mother was an exchange teacher at Nanjing University.

When K.West was 15, Producer/DJ No I.D, a prominent hip-hop figure in Chicago, became his mentor and taught him how to sample beats.

K.West took painting and English classes before dropping out of College to pursue his musical aspirations.

During the late 90’s, he started to produce for various popular artists including Foxy Brown, Drag-On, Nas and Carl Thomas.

Jay-Z’s classic album ‘The Blueprint’ was produced by Kanye West, which was the main reason for his big breakthrough in 2001.

Even though he first was successful as a producer, he really wanted to become a rapper, and after several failed attempts at being signed, Damon Dash reluctantly signed him to Roc-A-Fella Records.

Initially, K.West’s signature sound was using sped up chopped samples from Soul music, but would outgrow this as the technique became overused by others.

Kanye West cites Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah and ODB as being his favorite rappers of all-time, while RZA being a huge influence on his music production.

When he’s not making beats, he prefers listening to Rock music over Hip-Hop.

Three of his albums (My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasy – 353, The College Dropout – 298 and Late Registration – 118) are included in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list.

To read more about Kanye West, I recommend you to check out his Wiki page which has a tonne of information.