I have the QSR with the Hip Hop Q Card. I would say the Beat loops are just average. The problem is that there are both rhythm & basses in the loops. I like to do my own bass lines via sequencer, and having the extra bass sounds in the loop just muddy ups the sound. I am going to see if there is some way to edit out those sounds. As far as the beats go they are pretty much standard and useful. As far as the instrument sounds go believe it or not they are not much different from what you can program in the standard onboard samples. If you were going to do Hip-Hop, and only Hip-Hop music you should check out samplers. I have a Kurzweil K2000VP and I really like keyboard sampler instruments even though this type of instrument usually costs more up front, and to use (sample CD's), and takes a lot more editing & programming work. But your end result is exactly what you want. I would say the Alesis is the way to go if Hip Hop is only 1 of the styles of music you do. This way you could use the whole instrument instead of just the rhythm kits, a few patches and the HH Q Card. One bonus is that Musicians Friend has the Q Cards on sale for $99.00