Credit: 21 Savage

21 Savage may be from Atlanta (or London, if we’re being specific), but his biggest musical influence didn’t come from his home city. The ‘Redrum’ rapper spent his first seven years living in Plaistow, London, before moving overseas to the state of Georgia.

Some of his favourite artists growing up are from the ATL, including Outkast, Gucci Mane, TI, Kilo Ali, Future, and Young Thug. But when asked to name his personal greatest rapper of all time, he looked towards New York City.

Nobody is better than Jay-Z, according to 21, and he has a number of valid reasons. Hov has been releasing albums since the mid-1990s, beginning with Reasonable Doubt in 1996. He’s dropped classic projects in several decades, including The Blueprint in 2001 and 4:44 in 2017. While we’re yet to witness a Hov album in the 2020s, there’s no doubt he still has that quality in his locker.

Explaining why he’s the greatest, 21 told Complex, “Just because of the longevity of his career and all the different versions of him that we got. His music evolves with him. Everything he did, I want to do it the way that he did it. He did it the right way. He ain’t never stop growing, and you can really hear his growth in his music. You can hear it from when he was 26, 27, to 40-something years old. And people still want to listen to it. I don’t think that happens often.”

While many artists lose the quality or hunger they once had, Jay is one of those who continues to evolve and attempts to better himself each time. Nas is another rapper who has aged gracefully, with the 52-year-old still at his creative peak across his King’s Disease and Magic series throughout the 2020s.

Not only has Jay been an inspiration to 21, but he also came to his rescue in 2019 when he was arrested and detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. They claimed he was “unlawfully present” in the country on a 2005 visa that expired one year after his arrival, but he had been trying to renew his visa since 2017.

Thankfully, Hov stepped in and helped him out. “I didn’t get deported, I got detained,” he said on My Expert Opinion. “And they detained me because they said I had felony conviction, but the felony conviction got dismissed. And I called Meek while I was in jail and told Meek, ‘Bro, I just got locked up.’ He called Jay-Z, and Jay-Z put a lawyer on my case.”

He continued, “He played a role in getting me out. He ain’t just doing that shit for anybody just ’cause you’re rap. You gotta be from a certain cloth. I don’t feel like he’s just doing that for anybody. I ain’t Roc Nation or none of that shit.”

21 is forever grateful to Hov for supporting him in his time of need. That backing was also a show of respect for his career as one of the biggest rappers from the current generation of Atlanta rappers. After that, Hov revealed he was a fan of his songs ‘Rich Flex’, ‘Jimmy Cooks’, and ‘Major Distribution’.