From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthe godfather of somethingthe godfather of somethingsomeone who began or developed something such as a type of music Afrika Bambaataa, the Godfather of hip hop → godfather
Examples from the Corpus
the godfather of something• Is there any chance of a job or has the Godfather Of Soul got the market sewn up?• Packard knew that the godfather of ecology, Aldo Leopold, had successfully recreated a prairie of sorts in 1934.• Until he stopped donating the usual $ 400,000, du Pont was the godfather of the sport. 