Woah, hadn't checked this thread in months and now it's massive. Plenty of stuff for me to get my ears into.
Seeing as how my OP was asking for reccomendations for newer stuff, thought I'd give a little back and list some tunes that I thought were the ***** in their day (and still listen to some now) as a lot of the posters in this thread would have been like 5 years old when they first came out.
Off the top of my head :
Soul by the Pound - Common Sense (now known as just 'Common')
We Getz Buzy - Illegal feat. Erick Sermon
Players Ball - Outkast
Myintrotoletuknow - Outkast
Classic Material - Leaders of the New School
Drop the Needle - Maestro Fresh Wes
They Want Efx - Das Efx
Come Clean - Jeru the Damaja
Chief Rocka - Lords of the Underground
Time 4 Sum Aksion - Redman
Blow your Mind - Redman
Flava in Your Ear Remix - Craig Mack
Strictly Business -EPMD
93 til Infinity - Souls of Mischief
Bring It On - Geto Boyz
Mic Checka - Das Efx
Mad Izm - Channel Live
Most of the above are on YouTube.
Thanks to the legendary Yo! MTV Raps for providing me some good music whilst growing up when most people my age were listening to boring ass indie music or hardcore rave *****.
There's also a quality freestyle session (Rakim, Erick Sermon, Redman, Method Man, Chubb Rock, Craig Mack and more) on the last ever Yo! show (link below). I remember watching it live, and rewatching it now almost brings a tear to the eye. Great days......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sazUx0HfbU8