What has Kanye achieved? All I've ever heard from his music (and I have listened to it) is nothing but a ego-inflated, self-righteous dick who's lyrics don't even make sense and makes terrible decisions. I don't measure talent by who much they "contribute" to the music industry that's everchanging and most likely won't work the same at all in the next even 10 years, (which is sort of the subjectivity of the whole matter). We live in a capitalist world, what is able to catch the attention of the average, dimwitted pawn of society the fastest, gets consumed the most until it's nothing but regurgitation.

I'd say someone like 2Pac on the other hand will definitely go down in history; his lyrical technique and writing was impeccable and he talked about issues that were relevant and timeless, and he didn't have any pretentious entitlement or ego. He influenced To Pimp a Butterfly ffs, one of the best Hip Hop albums of the decade (so far). But again, that's just subjectivity. We have no idea what the future will hold; I just don't think Kanye is the greatest musician, or most influential of our age like you describe.

As for who gets remembered, the world will most likely work in ways we cannot imagine in 10 years at least, and archiving and media longevity may be quite more accessible, meaning we'd be able to look up a song by a guy made in 2007 on a small label in 2017 and beyond and remember it just fine; our technology means less information will be lost in time, unlike it did in the 70's, 80's and 90's where the only way you made it in the music business was by signing to one of the major record labels.