Nate – that’s dope. I like the grime cypher.
And you’re right about Kendrick – he has already far surpassed Papoose and Saigon. I am a fan of both of those guys, but Papoose never dropped his major label debut (he was signed to Jive) The Nacirema Dream, though he did recently drop a new mixtape with terrible artwork (http://www.mixtapetorrent.com/papoose-most-hated-alive.) After a crazy long delay, and a falling out with his label (Atlantic) Sai finally dropped his debut album, The Greatest Story Never Told, independently. It received lukewarm reviews (from me,) and didn’t really boost his profile much. He has subsequently dropped a follow-up, The Greatest Story Never Told 2, but I have not heard it yet.
Kendrick on the other hand dropped one of the most acclaimed albums of last year independently, and followed up with a major label debut, which sold 250k copies in the first week. It seems like he has pretty much already made the transition from prospect to star.