This second part in the 2012 best of hip-hop series is a Top 130 album chart that is based on sales at Amoeba Music over the past twelve months. It is comprised of nearly all 2012 releases, but since it reflects sales in 2012, there are a few previous year crossover releases such as late 2011 albums like The Roots' Undun (MCA).

The list is a combo of both CD and LP releases since more releases were issued on vinyl in 2012 than in the previous years. (Ironically, major labels who were the ones trying to kill off vinyl back in the early 1990's as they were pushing CDs heavily have issued a lot of vinyl versions this past year.) There are some EPs included here as well as full-lengths such as Homeboy Sandman's Subject Matter on Stones Throw and  Azealia Banks 1991 EP (Interscope). The chart is compiled based on the weekly hip-hop top five sales charts from the three Amoeba Music stores (Hollywood, Berkeley, and San Francisco) submitted to the Amoeblog over the past year. This is a good gauge of what was popular and selling at the three Amoeba stores and via the Amoeba online store for 2012. It also should be noted that the first top fifty chart entries far outsold the next eighty releases. Not surprisingly Kendrick Lamar topped the chart with his commercially / critically acclaimed Good Kid M.A.A.D City CD on Dr. Dre's Aftermath label. In addition to such other as across the board (national commercial) hits like 2 Chainz Based on a T.R.U. Story, Kanye West Good Music Cruel Summer (Def Jam), Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 (Atlantic), and Nas' Life is Good (both on Def Jam), Amoeba shoppers also picked up a lot of indie label releases in quantity such as Aesop Rock's Skelethon (Rhyemsayers Ent.), El-P's Cancer4Cure (Fat Possum), Gangrene Vodka and Ayahuasca (Decon), and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' The Heist (Macklemore LLC). As well as new releases the chart also features some reissues such as The Pharcyde's Bizarre Ride II: The Pharcyde [Expanded Edition] (Delicious Vinyl), Notorious B.I.G.'s  Ready to Die, and  RBL Posse 20th Anniversary (Rightway Productions) which was a reissue of their three 1990's albums.

Another year over, a new begun - well almost - so it is time to look back at 2012 in hip-hop, which in my opinion has been a really incredible year especially in terms of indie releases. I will focus primarily on indie releases in this first of a two-part hip-hop 2012 retrospective. Indeed 2012 was a great year for the genre with a wide and rich variety of hip-hop being made by artists from all over, including some incredibly well-made videos - all done on tight budgets.  Year-end lists are by their very nature subjective and this one is certainly no exception. Like all year end "best of" lists, it is wide open to change and alterations (additions or deletions) at a moment's notice. Odds are I wont even agree with my own picks this time next month since my tastes are constantly changing and since there is just so much good music that I am constantly catching up on.

However with that said if I had to pick one hip-hop song based on pure catchiness of both production and lyrics, a song that grabs me as much today as when I first heard it eight months ago, it would be MaLLy & The Sundance Kid's "Shine" (video above) from their 2012 album The Last Great….

  Since the above What's In My Bag? (WIMB?) Amoeba video clip with MURS was uploaded to YouTube yesterday it's been drawing a lot of strong, mixed reactions mostly focusing on the bold statement on the art of rap made by the longtime Cail emcee. "Rap is not good enough to be associated with great music," said MURS when asked if he might sample an Ethiopian album he had picked up at the Hollywood Amoeba store. "Rap is like the lowest art form of art on the planet earth," he continued, semi-apologizing, "Sorry. I love it. But it's true." He then qualified this statement by saying that, "There's no other form of music in the history of music that totally denigrates women and promotes violence and killing of one another for senseless reasons." "We have to call it what it is and hopefully by calling it what it is we can improve it." he said adding, while he sincerely felt that way, that he was also a fan of rap and was about to pick up a Waka Flocka Flame album. YouTube comments related to this video, which rated 67 likes to 1 dislike at time of posting this Amoeblog, ranged from "haha this guy is awesome! best explanation of rap ever" and "this guy seems really cool. his views on his own genre are really interesting," to "Completely idiotic point of view" and "WTF?….if you think that murs why the fuck do you want a Wocka Flocka cd?"

The Brooklyn, NY producer, emcee, label owner & CEO, who has put his record company Definitive Jux on hiatus, also fully produced the, equally stellar, new Killer Mike album R.A.P. Music released by William Street. And it is because he has more time to focus on making music and not overseeing his iconic indie hip-hop record label, he told me, that he had the time and energy required to properly focus on both of these meticulously produced new albums.

Beyond focusing more on his art and musically fine-tuning his sound in the half decade since his last album (2007's I'll Sleep When You're Dead) El-P has also matured significantly on a personal level - although, ever the artist, El-P rarely differentiates between his music life and his personal life. "Not to sound corny but really your greatest artistic endeavor is how you shape your life," he told me recently before performing at the Regency in San Francisco as part of the national Into The Wild Tour also featuring Killer Mike, plus Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire and Despot.  Been free of the record label responsibilities El-P said has, "been a great stress off of my back" and that by not doing the label (which is why his new album came out on Fat Possum) has freed him up immensely as an artist. He has also had time to reflect on the passing - four years ago from lung cancer - of his friend/collaborator Camu Tao to whom the album is inspired and named for. Like Aesop Rock, Camu Tao was also on the Definitive Jux label and was also a member of The Weathermen along with Tame One, Yak Ballz, and Breeze Brewin.

1) El-P Cancer4Cure (Fat Possum)

2) Killer Mike R.A.P. Music (Williams Street)

3) J Dilla Rebirth of Detroit (Yancey Music Group)

4) Azealia Banks 1991 EP (Interscope)

5) Oddisee People Hear What They See (Mello Music/Fat Beats)

Once again at Amoeba the number one entry this week on the San Francisco hip-hop top five chart is El-P's truly amazing new album Cancer4Cure which I have worn out from listening to over and over. The only other recently released new hip-hop album that I have played quite as much (a bit more actually) is the number two Amoeba chart entry this week - also coincidentally produced by El-P; Killer Mike's R.A.P. Music on Williams Street. On my WFMU hip-hop radio show this week I both opened and closed with selections off this all-killer album:  the title track and "Reagan" which, with a slow smoldering lead in with some Ronald Reagan samples (in which he admits his lies) is followed by one of the best critical evaluations of the former Republican prez who has been repeatedly in the news of late with so many Republicans citing hm as an example of a fine leader. Killer Mike does not share this view as confirmed with the songs closing lyrics: "I leave with these four words - I'm glad Reagan dead." Another new hip-hop track that samples Ronald Reagan is the track "Zero Dark Thirty" off the new Aesop Rock album Skelethon.  The long awaited new album from the artist, who used to be on El-P's now defunct Def Jux label, will be released by Rhymesayers Entertainment on Tuesday (July 10th) when you can expect it to be a hot seller at Amoeba. The video for this Aesop Rock track (the lead single) follows below along with such others as El-P's new album track "The Full Retard,"