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That depends on what you're comparing it to. If it's late 90's/00 rap, then yeh, there haven't been that many exceptional rap artists who've made it to the mainstream. This is due to what the major share of the market wants, which is black/hispanic/white (in order from most desired to least) gangsta rappers. However, there still is a strong undercurrent of rap artists with a different view from the above mentioned, but they rarely get the face time. It doesn't help that you have the former music channels, what's left of the radio, and generally ignorant bassheads shoving down your throat that the good rap acts are all gangsta rappers.

The fact is, Rip Slyme, from the sound of it, represents more of an 80's/early 90's hiphop/pophop sound, fun, energetic and over the top, mixing a house-like sound (amusing, since the 70's used disco) with a genuine sense of entertainment. At the same time, hiphip has an edge to it that stems from the community it grew out of, namely the Bronx and its clubs, which also carried over into the division between hiphop and rap in the eighties. This gives it a kind of biting cynical nature at times, but it ain't no issue to like Japanese music over US music.

I don't know your experience with rap and hiphop, but I can think of a few groups off the top of my head with a similar sound or energy, and not necessarily grounded in hiphop. Is that bad? Nah, but the point I'm trying to make is that there's a lot more out there than people think, and stuff like this kind of reminds me of Anime V. Cartoons. You're so far buried under your own culture, you occasionally miss the good stuff, but can clearly see what you enjoy somewhere else.