1) Q-Tip The Renaissance (Motown/Universal)

2) Black Milk Tronic (Fat Beats Records)

3) T.I. Paper Trail (Grand Hustle/Atlantic)

4) Kurupt & Roscoe The Frank & Jesse James Story (Highpowered Entertainment)

5) DJ Babu Duck Season Vol. 3 (Nature Sounds)

Thanks to Marques at Amoeba Music Hollywood for this week's Top Five Hip-Hop albums chart where, as with the other two Amoeba stores, Black Milk's Tronic, DJ Babu's Duck Season Vol. 3, Q-Tip's The Renaissance, and T.I.'s Paper Trail are all selling well.  Also on this new chart is the wild west themed The Frank & Jesse James Story from Kurupt along with his younger brother Roscoe, aka the James Brothers.  Guests on this all West Coast rap offering include Too $hort, WC, and Daz Dillinger.  Keeping in the brotherly (though not technically siblings) mode is new crew The Temper Twins. Check out the group's  cool new video / song "Change It Up" below. The Twins, comprised of Jimmy Temper & Tim Temper plus Shotgun, are a new Hollywood (by way of the East Bay) group whose seeds were first sown 17 long years ago at an Oakland BBQ when then newcomer to the local hip-hop game Sunspot "Tim Temper" Jonz, later of Mystik Journeymen/Living Legends fame, first crossed paths with Julian "Jimmy Temper" Brooks, MC and founding member of the psychedelic hip-hop pioneering duo The Mod Squad who got signed to TNT Records, and then picked up by Priority Records for a hot minute scoring a buzz with 1992's Peoples Park.

Lil Slim was one of the first artists to be signed to Cash Money Records. After a series of underground classics, he parted ways with the label. A couple of years later, CMR signed a multi-million dollar deal with Universal and the label's star, Juvenile, carried the new roster to success whilst Lil Slim receded into the shadows.


Lil Slim lived way out in the 17th Ward on New Orleans's western edge in Hollygrove, a small, lower middle class neighborhood that also was home to Big Boy (and later, No Limit) artist, Fiend. Representing the Apple and Eagle intersection, he brought his raps to audiences at Club 49, where he performed alongside UNLV and Soulja Slim. One day, Ziggler the Wiggler introduced them to Mannie Fresh, a young DJ from the 7th Ward who'd gained a measurable degree of local fame with rapper Gregory D. Shortly after, Lil Slim was introduced to Baby and Slim, brothers and co-owners of the fledgling Cash Money Records label. They signed Lil Slim and recorded his first album in Baby's kitchen.