prince paul/de la soul for giving us the "3 ft high and rising" masterpiece
the bomb squad for putting noise and sound in the same democratic context
rza for reviving hiphop music in the mid '90s
dj premier: just only having conceived "the jazz thing" it's enough for me
clouddead/odd nosdam for making people understand that even with poor equipments the most important thin is the IDEA
el-p for the astonishing work wit company flow, incredible sounds with cannibal ox and def jux stuffs
antipop consortium: damn tehy're still so underrated..bump!
madlib/j dilla see clouddead+rza comments but in the mid 2000