Best Way To Go?

I have an iMac with Garage Band. Im looking to making beats but don't know which way I should go about it because Garage band is not cutting it. The over all sound of the instrumentals are very weak. Option 1 is getting an iPad and getting Beatmaker 2. It has great sound and many artists use it. Option 2 is getting a midi beat pad and midi keyboard and using it with Logic Studio. I need help choosing the best option. My spending limit is 600. The type of beats I'm going for is bone thugs/usher/lilwayne/drake type beats. If you can help out then that would be great. Thank you.

If you seriously want to invest more than $600, I'd go for Native Instrument's Maschine, Logic Pro 9 or Ableton Live and a good MIDI controller keyboard.

Then again I've heard good beats from people with just an MPC1000 + jjOS.
It's all about what you want to do with your music.

Thanks for the help. Logic Pro 9 does sound like the better option. Do you know of a good MIDI control keyboard? Im at the $100 dollar mark for that.

[Obligatory old man rant]

In MY day, the musicians made the whole SONG!! Hmmph! You kids today with your hips and your hops ...

[old man mode OFF]

But seriously, in addition to Juke's suggestion (which I second), you might want to check this out: Beat Thang ($999 but amazing): beatthang's Channel - YouTube