I'm just gonna lay it out instead of giving my musical history lol.
I'm huge into underground hip-hop over the last year or so, so here is my list that I always love:
Aesop rock is fucking hard to follow and listen to but I love it. Metaphorically this dude is on top.
Atmosphere is really good upbeat stuff a lot of the time but he has good deep stuff too.
Immortal technique is awesome, his song "dance with the devil" had me twisted. I like his political views and how he puts it all out there like in point of no return.
Here's some that I haven't seen (although I just skimmed the thread)
Cunninlinguist is also AWESOME
Heavy metal kings, Jedi mind tricks, snowgoons are AWESOME for hardcore hip hop. I really dig those guys. Vinnie paz has a lot of heart in his music. Army of the pharaohs is worth adding.
The streets is alright if you like stuff from UK
Dilated peoples is really good
Swollen members has this song called black clouds, it's the only song I've heard by them but its pretty good
Gorillaz and deltron 3030 are good
I like mgk, brotha lynch hung, tech n9ne, obviously eminem, and I'm from Detroit so woop woop to the clan.
But lets give credit where credit is due. Method man, Redman, gza, rza, odb all those guys got me started in the underground so I put them at the top of my list...metaphorically....