Similarly, I was happy to see Blackalicious and MF Doom place fairly high in the list too. Aesop Rock is a legend and I have a couple old favorites by him ("Daylight", and that same song's antithesis "Night Light"), but I also find him to be mentally over-taxing at times.

Since you enjoyed your first listen of Aesop Rock so much, for something newer I highly recommend Milo's 2018 album "budding ornithologists are weary of tired analogies". Enjoy :)