1) RBL Posse - Ruthless By Law
2) Spice 1 - Amerikkka's Nightmare
3) Lil Ri - Deep N Tha Game
4) West Coast Bad Boyz - High Fo' Xmas
5) Dru Down - Explicit Game
6) Goldy - In The Land of Funk
7) D-Moe - Do You Feel Me
8) Young Rich The Factor - Gettin' A Grip
9) V/A - West Coast Bad Boyz
10) Young Joker - Who's Laughin At Cha

11) C-Bo - Gas Chamber
12) A.M.W. - The Real Mobb
13) Rappin 4-Tay - Don't Fight The Feeling
14) Paris - Guerilla Funk
15) Fly Mar - Ya Betta Ask Somebody
16) Ray Luv - Last Nite                                  
17) Rondo & Crazy Rak - The Abused
18) Roots From The Underground                  
19) GLP - Straight Out The Labb
20) Hugh EMC - The M.O.B.

At a recent music event in San Francisco, where a guy was busily handing out flyers promoting the upcoming Bay Area concert appearance by Donna Summer, I overheard a short but slightly-heated conversation between the guy handing out the flyers for the disco diva and someone walking by.

"Has Donna Summer been fully forgiven for allegedly been homophobic and......?" the passerby began asking, innocently enough it seemed. But before he could even fully finish his question, the street promoter, sounding jaded at still fielding this seemingly recurring question on a long dead topic, had cut him short: "It's not true. It never happened. It was a rumor based on a myth."

Known as the "gay myth" this nasty slice of misinformation has haunted Donna Summer for the last 25 years and, apparently, seems like it will never fully die. The rumor started in 1983, back when the disco bubble had popped and Summer's career along with it. She had also recently gotten divorced, gotten into a mental funk, and consequently become dependent on anti-depressant medication. Because of all of this, the singer, who had topped the charts with songs like "Bad Girls," had found God and become a born again Christian. More importantly it was when the AIDS crisis was tightening its frightening choke-hold on the gay community -- long Summer's core dedicated fan base.

Marcus Reeves, former editor of the the Source hip-hop magazine and contributor to such publications as the New York Times, the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and Vibe magazine, recently had his book Somebody Scream! (Rap Music's Rise To Prominence In The Aftershock of Black Power published by Faber and Faber Inc.

Like Jeff Chang's critically acclaimed hip-hop history Can't Stop Won't Stop, Somebody Scream likewise takes an analytical look at hip-hop -- a musical form that, like rock before it, is now all grown up and going through its own kind of mid-life crisis. Cornel West called Reeves' book "a strong  timely book for the new day in hip-hop" and he is right.

I recently had the opportunity to catch up with the East Coast based author to talk about his new book, Somebody Scream,  and its subject matter: hip-hop. Here is that dialog:

Amoeblog: First up, how hard is it writing a book on a topic that is still unfolding around you as you report on its subject matter?

Marcus Reeves: Surprisingly, it wasn’t that hard to write because before I even started I had a beginning, a middle and an end. I’d already picked out who were the most influential rap artists—the ones who lead their particular era—strung their stories together by chapter and let the narrative unfold. And the narrative was easy because, like so many who’d watched the story of commercial rap over the last 30 years, it was also the story of my life. All the history and events that the music reflected, and I talk about in the book, were things I lived through and impacted my life. The last chapter of the book, which discusses what events shape the music now, helped capture all those moments that were still unfolding.

AMOEBA MUSIC SAN FRANCISCO HIP-HOP TOP FIVE 07:18:08

1) Lil Wayne Tha Carter III (Cash Money/Universal)

2) Messy Marv Hustlas Motivation Mixtape

3) Jean Gray + 9th Wonder Jeanius (Blacksmith/Warner)

4) Immortal Technique The 3rd World (Viper)

5) Nas Untitled (Def Jam)

This week's number one seller at the Amoeba Music San Francisco store should come as lil surprise. It was Tha Carter III by Lil Wayne, which, despite advance leaks and rampant downloading of its tracks, still managed to sell big numbers (by today's music industry standards) and hit the number one spot on countless charts (both airplay & sales) from Billboard (3 weeks straight @ #1) to KMEL to Amoeba etc. Luis in the hip-hop department at the Haight Street Amoeba, who kindly supplied this week's Hip-Hop Top Five, said that Bay Area music buyers love Lil Wayne just as much as national audiences (especially considering the historic Bay Area/Dirty South connections), but that their dedication to Bay Area rap/hip-hop, including this week's chart's number two album, is unbridled.

Living Legends, the LA based hip-hop collective with their roots in the Bay Area, have long had a strong bond with Amoeba Music, dating way back to the nineties when Amoeba Berkeley was the first record store to believe in them and carry their underground tapes when they were still a (virtually) unknown crew living in a warehouse deep out in East Oakland. Back in those tough early days, in efforts to make ends meet, the struggling artists used to slang their lo-fi cassettes on the streets of the East Bay, publish the simple but entertaining Xeroxed and stapled rapzine Unsigned & Hella Broke (UHB)* and throw Top Rawmen/99cent "survivor" parties at their community living space. These inspired events not only allowed them to practice their craft but served as a necessary way to buy groceries (noodles galore) and scrape together enough money to pay their overdue PG&E bills.

That seems like a long time ago to the Legends, whose membership includes Mystik Journeymen (consisting of Sunspot Jonz & Luckyiam.PSC -- the two main founding Living Legends once simply known as Tommy & Corey), The Grouch, MURS, Scarub, Eligh, Aesop, and Bicasso. Through all the good times and tough times Amoeba Music has always supported the Legends, and in turn the Legends have always shown much love for Amoeba. At a 2006 instore at the Berkeley Amoeba MURS made mention of the fact that Amoeba was the first record store to sell his music.

But perhaps the best Living Legends/Amoeba moment was a few months ago, April 8th 2008 in LA, when the collective did a great instore performance at the Hollywood Amoeba Music. Above is the video, which is not just one song but the whole damn instore performance, running almost 33 minutes. The great performance includes the collective doing the song "The Gathering" (also the title of their group album just released that month on their own label, Legendary Music). The Grouch can be seen doing his funny-but-true song "Artsy" (off his solo album Show You The World, which had also just dropped that month on Legendary Music).  The Legends also perform "Purple Kush," featuring The Grouch with Eligh, followed by Murs performing "3:16," The Grouch doing "Never Die," and the Living Legends extended crew closing out the show  with  "2010."  Check it out!