I believe todays hip hop is blown wide open in regards to experimentation and genres......Digable Planets(back together!!
) King Britt, Gorillaz,Shadow, Greyboy, Tribe Called Quest,De La Soul all are some of my favorites that have helped break the mold that was set by the early likes of 80's gangsta rap.......problem is todays radio stations are not playing the creative works influenced by these people....they are slave driven by the Oh so famous Clear Channel....so unless you sell 40,000 units out of your trunk or know some KEY people there isn't a chance to hear forward thinking tunes with content and sophisticated beats unless you dig in and do a little research.....I agree there's more quality in todays standards in terms of bit rates and headroom but what's the difference if you turn the channel after 3 seconds of lyrical nonsense.....todays present status of hip hop is worse off than it was 10 years ago and yet we are in an era where everyone has an Mbox,mic,and unlimited plugins.....
my two cents