I've been sitting on this collection of Bollywood soundtrack covers for some time now and I figured that India's Independence Day would be a great time to launch the gallery. Bollywood soundtracks are always a great listen; my experience is that even the more average LP will have moments of brillance. The cover art is usually quite intriguing, even if on some it's just the fontage used for the titles. I've included some stellar youtube footage from a few of the featured movies.

Amoeba Music San Francisco
Hip-Hop Top Five: August 01, 2008

1) NaS Untitled (Def Jam)

2) Jean Grae + 9th Wonder Jeanius
     (Blacksmith)

3) People Under The Stairs The OM Years 
     (OM hip-hop)

4) Husalah & B-Luv Tonka Boyz
    (SMC Records/City Hall)

5) RZA as Bobby Digital Digi Snacks
    (KOCH)

A shout-out to Luis in the hip-hop department at the San Francisco Amoeba Music for this week's Top Five chart, which includes the new Bay Area indie rap release from the rhyme duo Husalah & B-Luv, Tonka Boyz, that features guest spots from such local faves as PSD, Yukmouth, The Jacka, and Dubee. Also charting high this week is the double CD retrospective by People Under The Stairs (PUTS) from OM hip-hop. Disc one is "The OM Years" and includes such crowd pleasers as "San Francisco Knights," "The Cat," and "Jappy Jap," while disc two (my personal fave, since it has some stuff I had not heard before) is titled "B-sides & Rarities."  

Luis admits that he is not really feeling the new RZA as Bobby Digital (Digi Snacks) and I have to fully agree with him.This, the artist's fourth solo record, not only fails to match any of his Wu Tang output, but also falls short of his own previous solo work. However, as is often the case with overall mediocre albums, there are a few great songs to be found on the 15 track Digi Snacks, including "Drama" featuring Monk and Thea and "You Can't Stop Us Now" (feat. fellow Wu warrior Inspectah Deck).