1) Ghostface Killah Ghostdini: The Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City (Def Jam)

2) Crown CIty Rockers The Day After Forever (Gold Dust Media)

3) Jay-Z The Blueprint 3 (Roc Nation/Atlantic)

4) Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Links Pt II (ICEAL)

5) Brother Ali Us (Rhymesayers)

Thanks for this week's Amoeba Music Hip-Hop Top Five chart go out to Tom at the Berkeley store where, in addition to updating the Amoeblog on the top selling new hip-hop albums, he reports that, as of yesterday,  the Telegraph Ave. store has, "got all the Halloween decorations up and it looks mighty spooky." What's spooky to me is how quickly the summer just flew by and the fact that it's almost Halloween again. Dang! Time really does fly. Case in point is Ghostface Killah -- it seems like it's only been a few years since the Wu-Tang Clan rapper dropped his first solo release, Ironman, but actually that release came out thirteen long hip-hop years ago, in 1996! His latest album, Ghostdini: The Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City on Def Jam, which is this week's number hip-hop release at Amoeba, is actually the eighth solo release from the Wu rapper, who took his name from the 1979 kung fu film Mystery of Chessboxing.

1) Mos Def The Ecstatic (Downtown)

2) Chali 2na Fish Outta Water (Decon)

3) DOOM Born Like This (Lex Records)

4) Cage Depart From Me (Def Jux)

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

At the Berkeley Amoeba Music store this week the top selling albums are all ones that have been out for a few weeks or more but that are proving to be staples for the Summer of '09. Charting records include the latest releases from Mos Def, Wu-Tang, and Chali 2na, as well as DOOM's (aka MF Doom) recent Born Like This and Cage's Depart From Me, both of which are incidentally on Definitive Jux (aka Def Jux), the label co-founded by El-P that seemingly can do no wrong as it steadily builds a catalog of quality, lasting hip-hop in an era of the genre when there is so much clutter elsewhere.

The OM 15 party is tonight! San Francisco based OM Records will be celebrating 15 successful years with a big show at the Mezzanine this eve (Friday, August 14) with Mark Farina, J Boogie, Whooligan and others. I just caught The Whooligan at the same venue a week ago when he was performing with 40 Love during the wonderful Amoebapalooza 2009.

1) Q-Tip The Renaissance (Motown/Universal)

2) Black Milk Tronic (Fat Beats Records)

3) T.I. Paper Trail (Grand Hustle/Atlantic)

4) Kurupt & Roscoe The Frank & Jesse James Story (Highpowered Entertainment)

5) DJ Babu Duck Season Vol. 3 (Nature Sounds)

Thanks to Marques at Amoeba Music Hollywood for this week's Top Five Hip-Hop albums chart where, as with the other two Amoeba stores, Black Milk's Tronic, DJ Babu's Duck Season Vol. 3, Q-Tip's The Renaissance, and T.I.'s Paper Trail are all selling well. Also on this new chart is the wild west themed The Frank & Jesse James Story from Kurupt along with his younger brother Roscoe, aka the James Brothers. Guests on this all West Coast rap offering include Too $hort, WC, and Daz Dillinger. Keeping in the brotherly (though not technically siblings) mode is new crew The Temper Twins. Check out the group's cool new video/song "Change It Up" below. The Twins, comprised of Jimmy Temper & Tim Temper plus Shotgun, are a new Hollywood (by way of the East Bay) group whose seeds were first sown 17 long years ago at an Oakland BBQ when then newcomer to the local hip-hop game Sunspot "Tim Temper" Jonz, later of Mystik Journeymen/Living Legends fame, first crossed paths with Julian "Jimmy Temper" Brooks, MC and founding member of the psychedelic hip-hop pioneering duo The Mod Squad who got signed to TNT Records, and then picked up by Priority Records for a hot minute, scoring a buzz with 1992's People's Park.

Raashan Amhad of Crown City Rockers fame, who today releases the new 13 track album The Push on OM Records, will celebrate the release of this fine debut solo of his with an in-store performance @ 6PM this evening (May 20th) at the San Francisco Amoeba Music.

If you can possibly make it I strongly recommend that you attend this free, all-ages show, as this emcee (and sometimes DJ and breaker) is not just an amazingly gifted hip-hop artist but also a truly great live performer -- someone who lives and breathes hip-hop and understands the true meaning of rocking the house, y'all.

In addition to his work with the Bay Area live hip-hop band Crown City Rockers (who had to change their original name from Mission because of the UK band The Mission) the ever prolific Raashan Amhad has collaborated with a ton of artists. I must have close to ten different records or CDs by other artists that he pops up on, including the DJ Zeph single "Floor Wax" (Wide Hive) and Zion I's Break A Dawn, and I know there are many more that he guests on. 

Personally what I always like about Raashan is how he maintains that old school, golden era hip-hop   vibe in his style while simultaneously somehow always managing to sound new and fresh. Yesterday I caught up with the busy artist to ask him some questions about how he accidentally got started as an emcee, the difference between SoCal and the Bay (two places he has lived in), and his new album, which was born out of a lot personal emotions, including the tragedy of his mother dying of cancer.