1)    Hail Mary Mallon Are You Gonna Eat That? (Rhymesayers)

Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz top the charts this week with their deservedly popular collabo, which combines their abrasive Def Jux aesthetic with some fun party vibes. 

Hail Mary Mallon represents some of Aesop Rock’s strongest material in a minute, and really showcases his talents as a producer through some neck-snapping beats.  Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic have got great vocal chemistry, and are local SF-dwellers these days as well.  Worth peeping!






2)    Beastie Boys Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 (Capitol)

The Beastie Boys continue to prove that they’re one of the most universally popular groups in hip hop by coming in second this week after a long run of topping the charts. 

Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 is a return to form from To the 5 Burroughs that proves that you can still record a grimy sounding album on a million dollar budget.  The sort of raw, playful rap music you’ve come to expect from these guys.

         
There's a reason why so many viral videos feature cats and dogs. People love their pets and can relate to videos featuring animals that remind them of their feline or canine buddies. And this is the reason, I believe, that's fueled the phenomenal popularity of the Swedish House Mafia's latest music video for their pop-dance track "Save The World" which, since it was uploaded just twelve days ago (May 19th), has racked up an astonishing nine plus million YouTube views. The engaging video for the average song stars a cast of hero dogs of varying breeds who race to defend the attacked humans (save the world) as seen in the clip above.

After watching this video I started thinking of all the other cool music videos starring dogs and have compiled a selection of them here including Atmosphere's "Just For Show" from the Rhymesayers act;s recently released album The Family Sign and OK Go's ever popular "White Knuckles" video which has tallied over 10 million views since it was uploaded on YouTube last September. Also,below are such dog themed classics as Snoop Doggy Dogg's Dr Dre produced "Who Am I? (What's My Name?)" in which the Dogg famously morphs into a dog (impressive in 1993), Baha Men's one hit wonder from eleven years ago "Who Let The Dogs Out," and Sublime's "What I Got."

1) Atmosphere The Family Sign CD (Rhymesayers)

The new album from the most successful band in indie rap music expands upon the sound that they built with their live band on "To All My Friends/Blood Makes the Blade Holy.” The result? The Family Sign: A series of daring and memorable songs that take their musicianship to the next level.

These guys have built their fan base from the ground up through years of constant touring, so it's always nice to see them getting the support they rightfully deserve.






2) Del Tha Funky Homosapien Golden Era CD (Council)

Bay Area favorite Del’s new album is probably the best deal you’ll get on a hip hop CD in 2011. The package contains three full length CDs for the price of one, setting Del’s brand new unreleased recording Golden Era next to two albums previously only available in digital formats, Automatik Statik and Funk Man. The two free albums you get in the package are solid in their own right, and Golden Era continues the tradition of quality that Heiroglyphics fans have come to know Del for.

1) N*E*R*D Nothing (Star Trak)

2) Madlib Medicine Show No.10-Black Soul (Stones Throw)

3) Cee-Lo Green
Lady Killer (Elektra Records)

4) TIE: Lil Wayne I Am Not A Human Being (Cash Money/Universal)
Kid Cudi Man On The Moon 2: The Legend of Mr Roger (Universal/Motown)

5) Eligh Grey Crow ( Legendary Music/ Alpha Pup)

N*E*R*D's great new album Nothing on Star Trak, which was written about in last week's Hip-Hop Rap Up, is number one at the Berkeley Amoeba Music this week, followed  by Madlib's tenth release in his ongoing twelve part series on Stones Throw. Medicine Show No.10-Black Soul finds crate digger extraordinaire Madlib serving up a mix (although it should be noted not all are mixed together) of some rare soul from the mid to late 70s right when the music, as Stones Throw notes, was giving way to disco, when the groove was on its way to the boogie, when funk was on its way to fonk. Released on Tuesday is the brand solo release from Cee-Lo Green (of Goodie Mob and Gnarls Barkley fame); the album Lady Killer on Elektra Records got a very positive review on the day it dropped by Smiles Davis in the Amoeblogger's post Get Off Farmville and Go Get Cee-Lo's Lady Killer that raved, "this may very well turn out to be the best album of 2010." 

1) Murs/9th Wonder Sweet Lord
(Record Collection)

2) Atmosphere God Loves Ugly (Rhymesayers)

3) Dälek Gutter Tactics (Ipecac)

4) X-Clan Mainstream Outlawz
(Suburban Noize)

5) Cappadonna Slang Prostitution
(ChamberMusik Records)

Thanks to Luis at Amoeba Music San Francisco for supplying this week's Hip-Hop Top FIve chart of the best selling albums of the week at the Haight Street store where the new number one is the album Sweet Lord by Murs and 9th Wonder. It was recorded about two years ago by the Los Angeles emcee and the North Carolina producer but not first released until a few months when it was made available as a digital download only; the album is only just now available to buy on CD. 9th Wonder, who is one of the best and most in-demand hip-hop producers today, and Murs, who is among the brightest and most gifted lyricists in the genre, have worked together before. Most recently they collaborated on a few tracks off of Murs' major label debut Murs For President, released on Warner in late September. In the studio they have a wonderful chemistry. As Murs raps on the Sweet Lord track "Are You Ready?" -- "Welcome ye'all to the 9th Wonder, Murs' dream. Ghetto music with a purpose..two of the world's most respected musicians are now at work. I suggest you listen."

The rest of the ten track album is really, really good (you wouldn't expect less from the talented duo) and features such other standout songs as "Free," "It's For Real," and "Nina Ross." "Nina Ross," which is a very clever song, is one of those great hip-hop tracks that draws you in thinking it is (yet) another tale of a hip-hop guy scamming on girls or (in this case) on the one girl, Nina Ross. Instead Murs flips things up in this engaging tale. And as the story unfolds it turns out that Nina is the one in control of the situation and that the guy is the one been taken advantage of -- or rather being taught a lesson for his past sexist & explloitive attitudes & deeds towards women.