Amoeba Music Hollywood Hip-Hop Top Five Week Ending 12:16:11


1) The Roots Undun (MCA)

2) Drake Take Care (Cash Money/Universal)

3) Pusha T Fear of God II: Let Us Pray (Fontana)

4) Eligh & Amp Live Therapy At 3 ( Legendary Music/Live Up/Traffic)

5) J Cole Cole World (Columbia)

Special thanks to Ray Ricky Rivera at the Amoeba Music Hollywood store for this week's Amoeba Hip Hop Chart which includes staples of the past few weeks Drake's Take Care on Cash Money/Universal, J Cole's Cole World on Columbia Records, Pusha T's Fear of God II: Let Us Pray Fontana, and Eligh & Amp Live's Therapy At 3 via Legendary Music/Live Up/Traffic. Meantime the number one hip-hop seller is the brand new album from The Roots Undun which was released last week (December 6th). Undun is the Roots' eleventh studio album but it is their first concept album. As outlined in the Undun preview video above that concept follows the life and times of the fictional young Redford Stephens - "a kid who becomes criminal, but wasn't born criminal" and who is "neither victim nor hero."  As the online Amoeba reviewer accurately wrote of Undun: "Don’t let their spot as Jimmy Fallon’s house band fool you — The Roots haven’t softened one bit. Their latest release is a concept album about a youth drawn into street life until it results in his death, told in reverse. Despite all the inherent bleakness that would imply, lyrically, musically Undun is not so dour, buoyed by vibrant soul and touched by flourishes both electronic and orchestral that suggest how far the Roots have come as a band and as conductors of a sound they alone seem to inhabit.

1) E40 Revenue Retrievin'- Day Shift (Heavy on the Grind Ent.)

2) E40 Revenue Retrievin'- Night Shift (Heavy on the Grind Ent.)

3) Madlib Medicine Show 3-Beat Konducta in Africa (Stones Throw)

4) Meth, Ghost & Rae Wu Massacre (Def Jam)

5) DonWill Don Cusack in High Fidelity (Interdependent Media)

In both the number 1 and 2 chart positions this week on the San Francisco Amoeba Music Hip-Hop Chart is longtime Bay Area rap artist E-40 with the his simultaneously released pair of CDs titled Revenue Retrievin' Day Shift  and Revenue Retrievin' Night Shift. Released this past Tuesday, both the Day Shift and Night Shift parts shot to the top of the chart partly in response to the well received lead off single/video "The Weed Man (feat. Stressmatic)" (see video below). Other guests who join the pioneering, "slanguage" making Vallejo wordsmith on the new two part CD series include such known names as Snoop Dogg, Too Short,  Mistah F.A.B., Ya Boy, Laroo, Dru Down, The DBz, Turf Talk, The Jacka, Gucci Mane, B-Legit, Mike Marshall, Suga T, J. Valentine, Droop-E, Mac Shawn and Clyde Carson & Husalah of Mob Figaz, who appear together on the song ""Lightweight Jammin'" which is on the Day Shift volume of the two CDs. As usual, Forty Water keeps it true to the Bay with all of those local artists joining him throughout the two CDs, which total up 38 new tracks --19 on each CD.

1) The Jacka Tear Gas (SMC)

2) Big Rich Heart of the City (3 Story Muzik)

3) Raashan Amhad Soul Power (Crown City Rockers)

4) Wu Tang Chamber Music (KR Urban/KOCH)

5) Dead Prez + DJ Green Lantern Pulse Of The People (Turn Off The Radio Vol. 3) (IMG)

Thanks to Luis at the San Francisco Amoeba Music for this week's Hip-Hop Top Five Chart, which is  60% homegrown Bay Area talent this week, including the number this week at the Haight Street store: The Jacka and his latest full-length, Tear Gas. The album from the Mob Figaz member is doing well on the Billboard charts too. It debuted at #4 on the music trade magazine's Rap Charts, #12 on the R&B Charts, #13 on the Indie Charts, and at #93 on the Top 200 albums chart, 

With studio assistance from a dozen different producers, this follow up to The Jacka's popular 2008 mixtape, The Street Album, is the hard working Oakland-born/Pittsburg-raised rap artist's most diverse sounding release to date. Tear Gas features mic guests from far beyond the Bay, including Houston's Devin The Dude and Philly's Freeway. Of course, the Mob Figaz member is also joined by some of his Yay Area peeps such as Mistah F.A.B., Andre Nickatina, and Zion I. Converted to Islam, The Jacka lets his faith be known on the album via lyrics such as "in Allah we trust, I try to purify my heart, because I’m a slave to my thoughts. I’m a monster out here, because I change when it’s dark" in the song "They Don't Know," on which he is joined by Freeway, who is a fellow Muslim.

1) E40 The Ball Street Journal (Sic Wid It/Warner)

2) San Quinn From A Boy To A Man (SMC/Fontana)

3) Bored Stiff The Sad Truth (SolidarityRecords)

4) Kanye West 808s & Heartbreak (Roc-A-Fella Records)

5) Ludacris Theater of the Mind (Disturbing tha Peace/Def Jam)

Thanks to Luis at the San Francisco Amoeba Music store for this week's Hip-Hop Top Five chart. Three of these five best sellers are homegrown Bay Area rap talent, including E40's anticipated The Ball Street Journal which, according to Luis, has been "selling well since it was released last Tuesday." The other two Bay Area new chart entries are from longtime San Francisco hip-hop acts: the Fillmore's San Quinn, whose latest From A Boy To A Man is selling especially well at the SF Amoeba, and Bored Stiff, whose The Sad Truth features many guests joining the multi-member crew including The Grouch and The Jacka of the Mob Figaz. Check the video interview below with Bored Stiff to learn more about this slept-on longtime local act. 

Regarding the other two new chart entries Luis says he is feeling one more than the other although, he stressed, each are "good in their own right." What does he think of Kanye West's new album 808s & Heartbreak which many, myself included, have been disappointed in? "Yes, it is hard to listen to as a whole, but if you play certain tracks individually you can see why many people are liking it and buying it. It deserves checking out," insisted Luis. And to his credit Kanye West deserves praise for always trying something new, as well as always sticking to his beliefs. Even if I am not always a fan of the man's music I will forever give him props for his brave outspoken post Hurricane Katrina "George Bush doesn't care about black people" statement.