these 2 actually had a chance but fukked it off with a combination of blowing it & just bad luck. As regards Saigiddy, I dont mean during his Just Blaze era either, -- you could tell that wasnt going to blow by then. But back before that around Yardfather 2, and amid buzz of potentially fukking with G-Unit he could've actually been a force. he wasnt decidedly preachy or "real hip hop"-centric yet. he was kinda unexpectable -- In a very good way. If he'd ended up fukkin with G-Unit for real he'd have been bigger than Banks & Buck. Not entirely sure how big his chances were outside that, but he mighta still been able to pop if he hadn't narrowed his focus & played his cards better...
as far as Grafh, he never even really caught a crazy buzz like that, & wasn't extra dynamic of a personality or anything, but he was actually doper than the rest of them for a while, & could've crossed over & appealed well. He was reaching out to the south & the west & the R&B shyt, but without feeling like a cornball. he could've been Fabolous part 2 basically, but a slight step up. Just wasn't in the cards...
Budden (who u didnt mention) had that buzz too, & was another of the few that ACTUALLY could've worked. -- I mean, I personally never believed in him that much, but he could've been bigger than he ended up. I felt like his album was kinda too generic & rushed, -- he coulda developed a bit more, melded his 2 "modes" better and seemed like less of a generic Club Rapper to the public. He needed that follow-up cross-over "overcoming life obstacles" type of big single. Remember when he wanted Prince & Avril Lavigne on his record? LOL. It probably would've been one of those.
As I remember, it wasn't even a problem at the time tho, he released some more singles that did alright & it was fine (besides a little label drama mixup of his & 112's singles with eachother). It was really just that he stalled out the next album by fighting the label & not looking harder for another "hit".
the rest them never had that buzz -- they had the bootleg pretend "hype" version. & I'm proud that Red Cafe never even got allowed that.
