For me it was House and Electronica music that made fall in love music beats and vocal samples in which Hip Hop uses a similiar style of sampling. Also when Kanye sampled Daft Punk for his song "Stronger" I truely felt in love with the Genre. In the end I started enjoying Hip Hop more than House music.
To answer your question it was Graduation from Kanye. It wasn't the first time I heard him but damn that album made me revisit his old tracks that I loved back in my preteen years where the term Genre didn't exist and I loved everything from Jay-Z to um...err Avil Lavigne.
Listenin back sice Coolio dropped Gangstas Paradise when I was 7 but it wasn't until Sway and King Tech & DJ REVOLUTION dropped "This and That" in 98 with Chino XL, Eminem (early), KRS-ONE, Dialated Peoples, Big Daddy Kane, Canibus, and other artists that made me really appreciate it more.
Still not sure if this falls in the category, but defiantly "Paul's Boutique" by the Beastie Boys, pretty much know every song by heart and just a quality album.
For the listeners of the C&V podcast who want to give us feedback and ask us questions.
note: I didn't want to start this group, infact I hate the idea, but part of me wanted to know how many people listen to the show so i decided FINE