Yeah, I remember getting pretty excited when I heard snippets for Northern Expozure 2. After that every comp was anticipated, then other artists were coming out and putting out, not just cool tracks, but memorable songs. Big Tone and Sav It Out were in the same category as East Co Co in terms of quality.
From the valley I was impressed with Baby Boy Ene's music, especially the progress he made from his first to second album.
The Nortelation came out at that time and everyone I know had that album. All good tracks from 14 Caliber, Tokztero, and others. Sleepy Santino had a good first album too.
There's some cool rappers out now, but whereas I used to think the "quality over quantity" applied to the music scene as well, it seems to be the reverse these days. I honestly have a hard time keeping track of all the new rappers popping up on youtube, doing their version of the latest radio hit or having Norte or Northern Cali as the song title.
Back when Woodie was alive I happened to listen to a lot of bay area and underground rap and no mainstream shit. Now for me it's the other way around. Mainstream artists have really experimented with new sounds, new lyrical topics, even producers like Kanye West are impressive lyricists.