AMOEBA MUSIC HOLLYWOOD
HIP-HOP TOP FIVE (6.5.08)
1) J-Live
Then What Happened? (BBE)
2) Atmosphere
When Life Gives You Lemons, You
Turn That Shit Into Gold (Rhymesayers)
3) Gnarls Barkley
The Odd Couple (Atlantic)
4) Flobots
Fight With Tools (Universal Republic)
5) Lil Wayne
Lil Weezy-Ana Vol. 1 (Noiseland)
If ever a hip-hop release deserved to do well it is the highly recommended new J-Live album, Then What Happened? on BBE, which is this week's number one release on the Amoeba Music Hollywood Hip-Hop Top Five Chart (thanks Marques Newson). The album, the artist's fourth and featuring some guest shots including Chali 2na and Posdanous, is also doing well this week at the Berkeley and San Francisco Amoeba Music stores.
What is most amazing about this under-appreciated hip-hop artist is that he is not just a great emcee but he is also a gifted producer and DJ. See the clip of him above, live in Amsterdam, simultaneously rapping on the mic and cutting up on the
ones and twos. Impressive stuff! J-Live's rich style is both respectful and inspired by the genre's golden-era past while still sounding new and pushing forward. Just back from some shows in Europe, he currently is in Atlanta, with East Coast shows lined up but unfortunately no Cali dates locked down in the immediate future. You can expect an Amoeblog interview with J-Live sometime over the next couple of weeks.