Hippity

After ripping 150 or so CDs to my iPod, I have a collection of some 1700+ songs. That's a lot: 4.5 days or something. I've always been a album-oriented listener, not a single-oriented listener, so on the iPod I just scroll through the Artist / Album listing and find an album I want to play. Albums are listed alphabetically, so my A Tribe Called Quest albums are always at the top of the list. This got me to thinking...

Is there any hip-hop out there that compares favorably to ATCQ ?

I have a couple of Beastie Boys CDs and I like them, too. I liked Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet, back in the day. But that's about it. I've tried a bunch of other stuff here and there over the years, but I've never found anything that eschews the blatant mysogeny, macho chest-thumping and silly bling-bling materialism that most popular hip-hop relies on. I'm not a dance/party music kindof guy, so all the Wave Your Hands In The Air stuff doesn't do it for me. I DL'd the Gray Album but it hasn't done anything for me; compared to ATCQ, JayZee sounds monotone and uninspired, and hearing the White Album all chopped-up in the background just makes me want to hear the real White Album. What I've heard of Eminem on the radio is clever and impressive, but it doesn't really make me want to buy the whole album. And, the All Music Guide, which I consider about 70% accurate calls ATCQ's The Low End Theory "perhaps the best hip-hop LP of all time" - am I doomed to disappoinment because I started at the peak?

So... I want to be down wit it but I don't know where it is.