DJ Premier? Large Professor? Pete Rock? DJ Quik? Jay Dee? MF DOOM? Q-Tip? Prince Paul? Dan the Automator?

Come on, man.

I didn't say all Hip-Hop was bad, I do listen to mainstream artists(don't ask me who they are though). I was just saying that the average mainstream rap--head these days usually doesn't recognize the quality of the rap verses they listen to, it's mostly just the beat and some autotuned verse in the chorus that somehow sounds really catchy

80s and 90s rap will tag team rape today's ****.

I could use brushing up obviously. Though I will throw in that i do like Donuts, as for everything else i'll have to research.

I choose 90s rap cause I like more rap artists from that decades than all the other decades.

wow, that made insanely good sense.

The 'golden age' of hip-hop, if you will, was between 1994-2005 IMO. So it's hard to pick between 90's and 00's stuff. i went 90's for the sake of the poll though.

I myself had always thought the Golden Age was much earlier. Like we're talking Slick Rick and Will Smith stuff. Not that I favor that era, it's just what I always thought was the so called Golden Age.

Golden age of rap in terms of mainstream success or artistic value?

You're right on that, the golden age is actually linked to a certain rap sound, not just personal preference. It's generally considered to be the late 80's and early 90's.

I should re-phrase, I knew that wording would confuse. More like the peak years.

Both. It was the most groundbreaking era for hip-hop albums. Look at any legitimate Top 10 Albums list for hip hop and that era dominates.

Again, I should have worded that differently. I was merely using the expression to describe the strongest time for hip-hop. I honestly don't think hip-hop is old enouh to have a golden age by that definition yet.