Considering people know him first and foremost as a rapper, you'd have to say that he knows more on music history than his peers.
Even amongst producers, he still has a rudimentary knowledge of music history that supersedes a lot of his peers. Most producers do look outside of hip hop for inspiration, however, they tend to look at stuff like jazz, R&B, etc.
I still think the influences tend to stay limited within the African-American musical experience, which you can claim is the foundation for all other imitators, but other cultures have made some interesting stuff over the years on their own.
Kanye is succesful because he's able to sample stuff from music that a wide demographic can connect to.