Erik Nielson, a University of Richmond professor who teaches courses on hip-hop culture, opines that West is a "mediocre rapper, but an extraordinary producer." Nielson states, "He will take a concept to an extreme, and flesh it out and explore it in some sort of depth," with a "broad, eclectic range of sounds that he draws on that has opened up new possibilities for artists who came after him." In 2013, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd of "Spin" described West as fronting a "new art-pop era" in contemporary music, in which musicians draw widely on the visual arts as a signifier of both extravagant wealth as well as creative exploration.