1. 40 - injecting musicality (along w/ some others, but mostly him) back into hip-hop
2. T-Minus - drums, drums, drums
3. Alex da Kid - he's almost got a cinematic feel to his songs. just a personal favorite i guess.
4. No I.D. - Sample-game is stupendous.
5. Jim Jonsin - Combinines dirty, thumping hip-hop with mainstream pop like no one else.