As far as best hip-hop albums post 2000, the first two that pop into my head are Masta Ace's final 2 albums.Disposable Arts and A Long Hot Summer. They highlighted what was wrong with hip hop in this era, they were concept, storytelling albums. You listened to them as an album, and they still had positive uplifting moments. These two albums stand up to the best of hip hop's golden era and they get repeated listens from me. Some classic cuts from these album include:
Another album worth mentioning is Souls of Mischief's Montezuma's Revenge. It was largely slept on but it was produced by Prince Paul and had all the souls lyricism, this track is an example:
Dead Prez's Let's Get Free was released in 2000. This album is a classic to me. It talked about stuff that most hip-hop artists would never touch on. Tracks like "Be Healthy" "Mind Sex" "They Schools" "Animal in Man" are all important and knowledgeable tracks about life. It's a very smart album.
Have a listen to this:
These 4 albums are classics in my opinion. I have other good albums post 2000 but I wouldn't put them up at that status... Yep most of my favs are in the 90s. 1993 is when hip hop peaked as far as I'm concerned. But Hip Hop is still great and I have many classics to listen to... I'm a leave you with this which pretty much sums it up..