Blaquegenious mentioned Akira.
Akira is strictly about making music. He is the show. That was actually the first clinic I ever saw (I thought before it the second but actually I saw him before seeing Virgil). Everything I have seen awith Akira has been totally musical.
However... I am ready for him to go to another level. He has mastered what he does many times over. It is starting to get boring.
Akira is very musical, I have to agree with that statement, as well as seeing him go to another level. JoJo is mos def a kat that's under rated. On the real, there are so many kats who are doing it big, I wouldn't say they get over looked, I think a lot of times when someone says drums, the first thing folks may blurt out is Dennis, Dave or some others... but dudes like Chris Dave, JoJo, El Negro, Robby Ameen, Gene Lake, Thomas Lang, these kats are putting it down. Truthfully I like Dennis Chambers a lot, but I'm finding myself searchin out other drummers.
I'm starting to realize that what I like most about Chris Dave is his feel & approach. I sat down at the drumset, and started playing some of the stuff I heard him play - and none of it was technically difficult, as far as I'm concerned. However, it's just that ... his approach drives me absolutely nuts!
So, I guess I wouldn't put him in that category, because he doesn't posess Langs, Mayers or Donati's technical prowess.
I agree with you on the feel thing. I wonder about the technical prowess because that 4 Way Cordination book is no joke and if he was working and flipping that in high school he should be able to do tha' do like them. However, I think it is a certain mindset that cause you to go to the new frontier like those fore mention monsters. Chris will always pay his bills though, 
because he is on it!
Now Gene Lake is one we haven't thrown into the fray and he is sick as well. Admittedly I don'yt know much about him but the stuff he did with Mesheel and the Screaming Headless Torsos is out there especially following Jojo Mayer in both bands.
http://www.vicfirth.com/artists/video/genelake1.html
Well, Sabe ...
The thing with Chris is - I've heard a lot of Chris ... and often times, his approach is very different. To date, I'm not exactly sure what he's totally capable of. I'll hear two clips of Chris in a row and I'll be like ..."Oh, okay ....well, this is pretty much the extent of his abilities." Then, someone else will send me something else - and I'll be like...."OOOOOOOOh....well, umm....." A lot of the clips I've sent you ... it sounds like he was in his experimental mood. He seems to be a very unusual guy, and that comes through in his playing. I never know what I'm gon' get.
At this point, I can honestly say I don't know where to rank him. Just when I think I've figured him out - he's goes off into something else that I've never heard from him before. Then their is the 4 way coordination ...
Then, their are all the stories about him being able to play everything he play's, backward. THEN, their is the story from Gerald Heyward .. about being at this drum warehouse(It's a very popular name, but it's 6 in the morning, lol) with Chris & Dennis ... and they were trading licks ... and Chris had both of them like
Aaron Spears, in his MD article said, 'If you sit down and listen to what he play's, it's so crazy, it's scary." This is from the mouth of a, as you well know by now, well-respected drummer. At least in the gospel & RnB world. He must've been a witness to something really stupid.
So, when you put all of that together ... I think I'll just put a "Opinion Subject To Change" next to his name.
