Lifestylez is a great album and probably my favorite rap album.
I used to listen to lots of "underground" rap many years ago, but there's so much more unexplored music out there, that I haven't really kept up with rap. One of my biggest complaints was even the really good albums just had too much filler on them. I don't mean skits, because sometimes they are well done, filler as in terrible songs. Only a few perfectionists released consistent albums IMO. Some of the real underground artists from Boston and NYC (CDRs or demo tapes) still put out consistently good stuff.
I do think jazz is far better and for every good rap album there are probably ten exceptional jazz albums.