I'm quite appalled that you qualify Bloodhound Gang as rap/hip-hop, even if the voice is principally rapped. Well why not, after all.

I do enjoy some old school hip-hop (MC Hammer and the like), and I really love abstract hip-hop. What keeps me away from the rest is principally the lack of musicality/technicity, the whole "ghetto" thematics that never changes, and so on.

I like artists like Saul Williams, DJ Shadow, Prefuse 73, RJD2, Fingathing, Nujabes and so on, because I really get the feeling they're doing music. Not just drop a beat and spit their anxiety on it (I don't even speak of the more commercial gangsta rap shit).

I really like when there is depth in the lyrics - or even better, when the lyrics are of high poetic value instead of "I'm not saying that society sucks, but hey, it sucks", because this obviously bores me quite quickly. Rap shouldn't be the possession of desperate ghetto people; it was born this way, but can be a really powerful way of expression/musical style in the hands of people who have other things to say. Like blues/jazz has evolved and mutated a lot from the "slave music" to the other styles derived from it.

If some of you people can speak/understand french, or are willing to look at translations, there are some groups over here that are interesting either for their distinctive sound, highly poetic lyrics, or both. Check out Java (rap with some accordion and other instruments, really cool lyrics), Svinkels ('punk rap'), Stupeflip (awesomeness, madness and other superlatives in -ness, really strange band though), Syrano (his lyrics are awesome), and ye olde school MC Solaar.