Housin' was an epiphany when I first heard it. Like it or not the 'd' 'o' double 'g' must be represented in any good hip hop collection. And straight up "The Score" is one of the best produced albums eva. "Hell on Earth" by Mobb Deep always blew me away because they were 19 year olds and so so angry and jaded. MIA because when you let brits who have a completely different ethno-cultural association to hip-hop you get amazing music. Common 'nuff said. But to me, the ultimate is Biggie Smalls whose mathematical precision and flow still mark him as the best single MC since the start of hip-hop.
Currently I'm back into electronica, lots of squarepusher, bonobo, peace orchestra, juno reactor, daft punk, RJD2 etc.