And the jams you named are like ... 1% of the amazing work they put in over that time.

Their creativity over that time period was unmatched and the fact that they weren't overly sampled-based is also impressive.

Maxxx, sorry, but everyone has influences. Like the OP said in response to you, if they were just clones they would have flamed out. They continued pushing things and were relevent and excellent from 1998 til about 3 or 4 years ago. And they STILL make good beats today, just aren't in the mainstream as much (sadly).