Boot Camp Clik is considered undergound? They were doing some mainstream stuff back in '93-94.
It's just my opinion but I stopped listening to rap in 98/99 because that's when I feel it started going downhill. I've still check out a few albums once in a while but usually still end up disappointed. Even the new Bone fell short and I was really looking forward to that one (I was rockin' B.O.N.E. E before Eazy handed them that Ouija, so I'm a long-time fan). I do listen to a little Tech N9ne once in a while, though, and can usually put up with anything featuring Brotha Lynch Hung (I've always dug the siccness). But I'm from a different era than most of you, it seems. My influences came from concerts in the early-mid 80s: Fat Boys, Doug E Fresh, Kool Moe Dee, Kurtis Blow, etc and albums from groups like N.W.A., Public Enemy, 2 Live Crew, Dana Dane, etc (not to mention a lot of funk music).
These days I still pop in some of my old CDs and drum up a lot of great memories but my taste in newer music is a lot more broad than it used to be. Can we list some newer non-rap songs that sound good/hit hard and really test a system?