So I'll stand up as one who is biased towards contemporary rap/ hip hop/ R&B- here goes:
New stuff I like- Jay Z (American Gangster, "Roc Boys"), Kanye, Talib Kweli, Fort Minor, Outkast, Andre 3000 collaboration efforts, NERD, any Neptunes production, Rihanna, Beyonce, any New Orleans Bounce music, any Ludacris collaboration but nothing on his albums, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Kirk Franklin, Timbaland productions (JT, Nelly Furtado, Missy Elliot)

Old Stuff I like- Public Enemy, Run DMC, Ice-T, The D.O.C, Parliament/ Funkadelic/ Bootsy Collins, PRINCE (and Madhouse), Camp Lo, Clipse, Pharcyde, Meshell NdegeOcello, Kill Bill Soundtrack (is genius), James Brown, Micheal Jackson, LL Cool J (and his battle raps), Art of Noise

Other Stuff- Foo Fighters ("The Pretender!"), all Linkin Park, Kelly Clarkson's new album, Alanis, J Timberlake (don't shoot!), Herbie Hancock (love "The Egg"), GnR, Imogen Heap, Miles, Danny Elfman, Jungle electronica (Goldie, Bjork, Apex Twin, Massive Attack- made the theme song for the show "House"), Rolling Stones, Saliva, Brand New Heavies

My lists are long but I rotated these and others in and out of my CD changer when it was working. I used to listen to more Jazz but for some reason it bores when when driving the VX.

Kudos to those with the super wide range of musical tastes. I'm going to look up some of these people and have a listen!