Kanye was never bigger than Drake at his peak. Sadly, the fact Drake is light skin black opens him up to a whole nother audience. Oh yea, he is jewish too. Plus, was kanye ever so big he could sell a blank disc? Remember they compared Drakes buzz to 50 Cent. Drake's popularity got Degrassi picked up for syndication in a bunch of new places.
Numbers dont lie.
Kanye also said Beyonce had the best video of all time with Single Ladies. Kanye is known to say outlandish things. Plus, no one really took Kanye the artist serious. It was always on some Dr. Dre shyt. The difference is with Drake, people were fooled into thinking he was great. Up until a little after Take Care Drake's reputation was spotless. Then the tide slowly changed and with Meek Mill the can of worms opened right up.
Kanye made the cover of TIME magazine, Rollingstone, and just about every mainstream magazine you could think of. Kanye was one of the artist selected to perform at the 10th Anniversary of Princess Diana's death.
Kanye opened up the lane for hipsters to dominate Hip Hop to where guys like Anthony Fontano are looked to for their opinions on Hip Hop. He also opened up the lane for people to take outlets like Pitchfork seriously.
Kanye at his peak had two triple platinum album and two albums that went double.
You're out of touch if you think people didn't take Kanye serious as an artist. There are people that feel that Kanye is the most important artist of this generation, which is why even his most outlandish statements are dissected. So yeah, when he talks about being the Greatest, people take not even more so than they do Drake.