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Kanye West released one of the most experimental albums of his career in 2013 with Yeezus. While many hip-hop fans were initially caught off guard by the project, the album was quickly put in the same conversation as his other classics such as The College Dropout, Late Registration, Graduation, 808s & Heartbreak and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Ye used elements of punk, electronic music and acid house across the 10 tracks to create a body of work that stands on its own in his catalogue. Despite all of those genres at play, the Chicago rapper has claimed that Yeezus wouldn’t be in the universe if it wasn’t for Tyler breaking into the industry and shaking up the norm.

“Work with your hands, it keeps you earnest,” he told Tyler in a clip from Cherry Bomb the Documentary. “You see the lines on your record in my hands right here. I’m glad you put that battery in my back when you said that line, man. That’s one of your jobs in hip-hop.”

He continued, “I don’t think there would have been a Yeezus if it wasn’t for you. I don’t think it would’ve been this verse right here if it wasn’t for you, or the shit [Lil Wayne] Wayne just did. Because it’s certain n*ggas who push you differently.”

Yeezus debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 327,000 units in its first week. The album was famously released on the same day as J. Cole’s Born Sinner and Mac Miller’s Watching Movies with the Sound Off, beating both of them to the top spot.

Tyler once stated that Ye was one of his only celebrity friends and revealed they speak on a weekly basis. “Kanye is one of the only few people in this industry that I consider a friend,” he told PTWSCHOOL. “I probably talk to him once a week. We both have a love for art and we hate a lot of the same stuff.”

Kanye wanted to appear on the Pharrell-featured ‘IFHY’ in 2013 before it ended up on his Wolf album, but Tyler turned down the opportunity. “I don’t want people to think it’s like a diss or a side hit when I say that I denied him,” he said.

“It was just that I played him the album before it was finished and there was a song that he really, really liked on it. He really like it a lot, he wanted to be on it or whatever. And the way that I do features, I specifically pick people for what they’re featured on. And that song, there was nowhere where I though creative-wise he would fit on there.”

He added: “I love Kanye, I’m a big fan, but that just wasn’t right for him. Now we’re most likely gonna have things in the future to come but I don’t want people to think I was swinging any negative energy towards him when he wasn’t on the song.”

Tyler and Ye have only officially collaborated once on ‘Smuckers’ from 2015’s Cherry Bomb album. However, Kanye did provide backing vocals on ‘Puppet’ in 2019, with Tyler returning the favour on ‘Come to Life’ from the deluxe version of Donda in 2021.