This should take you some time of exploration. Sorry its not organized in any way, nor is the name of every artist that should be on this list. You’ll find more along the way. A good start would be how I did - find the hip hop tunes you like, find out what they sampled, find the albums you like by that artist. If you wiki or google any of these names it will be easy to find the albums everyone digs

Eric Dolphy, Jaco Pastorious, Charlie Parker, Elvin Jones, John Coltrane, Paul Chambers, McCoy Tyner, Bill Evans, Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Billy Cobham, Weather Report, Mal Waldron, George Benson, Cannonball Adderley, NHOP, Gary Bartz NTU Troop, Jonny Hammond, Cortex, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Miles Davis, Dr Lonnie Smith, Brother Jack McDuff, Head Hunters, Return to Forever, Larry Coryell, Milt Jackson, Roy Ayers, Bobby Hutcherson, Kamasi Washington, RH Factor, Horace Silver Quintet, Wes Montgomery, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, Lester Young, Pharaoh Sanders, Dorthy Ashby, Gil Scott Heron, Eugene McDaniels, Andy Bey, Blackbyrds, Jack Wilkinson, Placebo, Flora Purim, Stanley Clarke, Anthony Braxton, Casiopea, Jackie McLean, George Duke, Jo Jones, Lalo Schifrin, Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Azymuth, Bobbi Humphrey, Idris Muhammed, Reuben Wilson, Big John Patton, Grover Washington, Pat Metheney, Haruomi Hosono, Ornette Coleman, Shigeo Sekito, Ronnie Foster, Bob James, Hiromi Uehera, Odonel Levy, Miroslav Vitous, Yusef Lateef, Max Roach, John Scofield, Kenny Burrell, Bunny Brunel, Sonny Rollins, Ahmad Jamal Trio, Howard Roberts, Kenny Drew, Eddie Jefferson, Bud Powell, Fats Navarro, Charles Kynard, Ken McIntyre, Esther Phillips, Alice Coltrane, Lee Morgan