erik - i totally agree re the vocal thing. often when i work on my hiphop beats when i get the first few elements together i'll get a vocal that fits with it and work the structure around that. loved that beat with the kanye vocal, timeless hiphop sound! here's a track i showcased a couple weeks back with the original vocal i worked around:
messengah - first one's got all the right elements there, i like the main samlpe you used. some of the sounds could be a bit crisper, maybe try layering up some of the drum/percussion sounds?
the second one has heaps of potential, loving the intro, great use of samples but again, the drums could do with some polish - crisper hats and possibly layer in a rim shot with the snare sound for a bit more pop arounk 1khz (ok, i just love the rimshot snare sound, could be just me).
bravoraps - bravo, very cool. nice production and fu*king hilarious vid!
i've just put an updated version of champagne & wine up, have mellowed out the snare sound a bit (still not quite satisfied) and overlaid a more 'real' sounding bass with the sub to ad some higher harmonics - i think it fits the over all vibe better than the pure synth bass.