gets lost in its echo

it was so swiftly and thoroughly digested into the common approach to rapping - it colored the form for almost everyone who practiced it. His flow (or aspirational impressions of it) became so typical so quickly, that we forget it even came from him

jay would be an easy answer to the op's question, from when he blew up until the 2010s

wayne was a product of jay like most good rappers were a product of jay

but wayne's push against and reinvention of the basics of the form - a push which was entirely his own - led to whatever it is we're doing now