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i don't think i've heard anyone compare him to Canibus or JMT. comparing 50 Cent and Sage Francis as the two reps for mainstream and underground oversimplifies the situation, though i doubt that was exactly as you inteded it to be. sure you have anticon and def jux that appeal to a crowd that would not be caught dead listening to ja rule (and with good reason too), but there's still another subgroup of underground, i'm thinking rawkus during its golden era or okayplayer now. canibus and jmt aren't really in the same category as rawkus, but they are really more underground than in-between.
as for kanye west, i like the guy's production, his lyrics are nothing stellar but nothing to really gripe against (though it always bothers me when in the song "through the wire" he says something like 'thank god for the safe belt' why not just say safety belt??). considering th number of albums he pushed in his first week, i'd group him in the mainstream category. what he's being hyped as is ushering in the new conscious stream of thought into mainstream, which isn't completely new, but it's a fresh breath of air anyways.
i suppose my biggest problem with kanye is he acts pretty damn arrogant. i mean, not to say that braggadacio doesnt have it's place in hip hop, but it just annoys me when he says he's had the best debut album since illmatic. is college dropout better than black on both sides? no. and i bet jay-z would be mad about that, wasnt reasonable doubt released after 94?
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