During the Bay Area's rich, three-decade strong hip-hop history, each city within the greater Bay Area has been fairly represented, from Oakland to Vallejo & from East Palo Alto to San Francisco and all other towns and spots in between. And with this music, more than any other popular genre, such as, say, rock, Bay Area rap/hip-hop has consistently presented an overwhelming sense of pride and recognition for its immediate surroundings. Neighborhoods or 'hoods are frequently name checked in rap songs. Listen to Bay Area hip-hop for any amount of time and you'll hear countless references or shout-outs to street names and specific blocks, to local landmarks and slang terms for areas such as "Valley Joe" (Vallejo), "The Town" (Oakland), and "Tha Sco" (San Francisco), aka "The SFC" or "San Fran Psyco" or "The 4, The 1, The Feev" etc. etc. In fact, San Francisco hip-hop in particular is renowned for displaying a huge amount of hometown pride lyrically as well as in the songs' corresponding videos.

So for this Amoeblog I've assembled ten (admittedly subjective, since there are so many to choose from) San Francisco themed rap videos that display both a love of San Francisco in their lyrics and also some great visual shots of the City by the Bay. Included is the very recently released, Dregs One directed "Heart & Soul" by Equipto featuring Mike Marshall, which is packed with references to San Francisco hip-hop artists from the past few decades plus tons of citywide landmarks (including Doggie Diner and Amoeba on Haight). "Heart and Soul" and many of the videos below include the SF Giants logo, gear or stadium shots. The SF Giants' success in 2010 brought additional pride to San Francisco hip-hop, as seen in the videos featuring SF rapper Roach Gigz below, along with San Quinn and others.

1) Zion I & The Grouch are Heroes in the Healing of the Nation (Z&G Music)

2) Pharoahe Monch W.A.R. (We Are Renegades) (W.A.R. Media/Duck Down Music)

3) Equipto & Michael Marshall Keep it Movin' 2 Love Changes-Solidarity Records

4) Raekwon Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang (Ice H2O Records)

5) Lupe Fiasco Lasers (Atlantic Recording Corp).

Thanks to Luis for this week's Amoeba Hip-Hop Top Five for the San Francisco store where the highly recommended new Zion I & The Grouch's latest collaborative album Zion I & The Grouch are Heroes in the Healing of the Nation is number one after only hitting Amoeba Music's shelves on Tuesday (March 22nd). A sequel to Zion I & The Grouch's similarly themed, successful 2006 collaboration, Heroes in the City of Dope, this latest teaming of hip-hop talent even surpasses that critically acclaimed release. Joining producer Amp Live and emcees Zumbi and The Grouch throughout this release are such guests as Fashawn, Casual, Mystic, Brother Ali, Eric Rachmany, Freeway, Roy Ayers, Jacob Hemphill of Soja, Eligh, Codany Holiday, The R.O.D., and Silk-E, whose soaring vocals elevate the single "Rockit Man," as seen in the brand new video above.

1) Madlib Medicine Show #11: Low-Budget Hi-Fi Music (Stones Throw)

2) Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)
 
3) Nicki Minaj Pink Friday (Cash Money/Universal)

4) Ghostface Killah Apollo Kids (Def Jam)

5) Cee Lo Green The Lady Killer (Elektra Records)
 
This week's Hip-Hop Top Five Chart from the Hollywood Amoeba store comes to you at this generally quiet time in the music business right before all the new year's first crop of releases drop. Hence, we have many of the same titles from the past few weeks represented here, including the unstoppable Kanye West, Nicki Minaj (whose new video "Moment 4 Life (feat Drake)" premiered yesterday, Wu-Tang Clan's super-gifted Ghostface Killah, and Cee Lo Green. Cee Lo Green had a most successful and high profile past year and it looks like 2011 will repeat that pattern for the artist, who first rose to fame as a member of the Goodie Mob and then as one half of Gnarls Barkley (with Danger Mouse), and who enjoyed phenomenal global success in 2010 with the song "Fuck You" from his current album The Lady Killer. Cee Lo has been busy performing and recording including, as reported in the past week, a duet with controversial UK singer Amy Winehouse. The track will likely will appear on her comeback album slated for release later this year. According to the UK magazine NME, "The two recorded the song when Green visited Winehouse's house in St. Lucia."

The brilliant, Ben Stokes-directed video above for Azeem's Air Cartoons' album track "Latin Revenge" (on Oaklyn Records with music production by DJ Zeph) takes place in the Mission District of San Francisco. Inspired in part by Terry Gilliam's work and also by Azeem's music, the animated piece also puts a spin on the role of how police are perceived in society. In the video Azeem gains popularity as he peruses the streets of the Mission (eventually becoming a King Kong-like menace) as meanwhile a host of local neighborhood characters take notice. The police in the video are described by the maker as "enablers and cheerleaders."

I called up Azeem the other day to ask him what he thought about the new video. "It made me a fan and it's my video," he laughed, adding that, "All I can say about that video is that I can really almost take no credit for it. I just made the song. Like you and anyone else, I am fan of the video and I am amazed at the level of artistry that it incorporates." The video's animation was done by Ben Stokes (the video's producer/director) with additional animation by Patrick Siemer, who drew from the thousands of still photographs they shot, then cut up, mixed and matched, and then painstakenly animated using After effects.

Ben Stokes, also a part of Tino Corps, D.H.S.,, &  Meat Beat Manifesto, has been professionally making music videos for about 20 years. The Mission District, San Francisco-based Stokes started out doing videos back in 1990 in his native Chicago where he began directing & producing a lot of the pioneering hometown WaxTrax industrial music artists' videos such as Ministry and the Revolting Cocks.

1) Azeem "Going Dumb vs. Going To Brazil" (Oaklyn)

2) Paris "Get Fired Up" (Guerrilla Funk)

3) East Coast Avengers "The Day That Hope Died" (Brick Records)

4) The Mighty Underdogs "Warwalk" (Definitive Jux)

5) Jurassic 5 "Gotta Understand (Bean One Remix)" (BOMB Hip-Hop)  



6) Dirt Nasty "1980" (BOMB Hip-Hop)

7) Madlib feat Prince Po "The Thang Thang" (Rapster)

8) Blueprint "Sacred" (Rhymesayers)

9) Hu$tle Simmons "Over and Out (feat. Buff 1)" (Break Bread Projects)

10) NaS "Black President" (Def Jam)

The number one entry on this week's Jameoblog Top Ten (a subjective, song oriented chart) is the funky and funny "Going Dumb vs. Going To Brazil" by Azeem off the always edgy Oakland emcee's recommended brand new album Air Cartoons on Oaklyn Records (cover by Ezra Li Eismont -- scroll down to see his Oaklyn speed painting video). On one level the song "Going Dumb..." is an ode to "the town" (Oakland) but on another it caps on the short-sighted shallowness of many fellow dwellers of Azeem's in this East Bay city where hyphy culture still rules. In the Anas Cannon produced song, Azeem pokes fun at "that dude that ghost-rided and ran over himself" as well as those who just "wanna swerve thru the town high on pills." Meanwhile, the artist's idea of real fun is heading south to the beaches of Brazil and not acting "dumb." The fourteen track album features lots of great producers complimenting the former Spearhead member's lyrical flow, including DJ Zeph, DNAE Beats, Meat Beat Manifesto, DJ Spin, DJ Aneurysm, Mark Pistel, and Kontroversy 396. And scratch fans will be happy to hear both DJ Quest and Z-Trip add some sick cuts on a few album tracks.

The number three entry is the incendiary "The Day Hope Died" from the thought-provoking, ever confrontational East Coast Avengers (ECA) whose recent single/video "Kill Bill O'Reilly" caused some controversy with its over the top lyrics that suggest murdering the notorious FOX News host. In fact, it was so extreme in its lyrics that even longtime BIll O foe Keith Olbermann of MSNBC condemned the song (scroll down to see video clip below). Boston's ECA, who cite Public Enemy, Paris, and the Dead Kennedys among their influences, is the trio of Esoteric (of 7L & Esoteric, The Army of the Pharoahs), trademarc and DC the Midi Alien. They recently dropped the album Prison Planet, on which they lash out at numerous deserved political and media targets.