Amoeblog

Hip-Hop Rap Up Week Ending 10.21.11: DJ Quest, Spank Rock, J-Live, Freestyle Fellowship, Phonte, Melissa Czarnik, Superstar Quamallah & Deqawn, and more

Posted by Billyjam, October 21, 2011 08:45am | Post a Comment

E-Lit @ Amoeba Berkeley Wk ending Oct 21st, 2011

Amoeba Music Berkeley Hip-Hop Top Five Week Ending 10:21:11

1) Freestyle Fellowship The Promise (Decon)

2) Phonte Charity Starts at Home (Hbd Label Group)

3) Lil Wayne Tha Carter IV (Cash Money/Universal)

4) Superstar Quamallah & Deqawn Talkin' All That Jazz (Cotter Records/Brick Records )

5) J-Live S.P.T.A. (Triple Threat Productions)

Thanks again to E-Lit at the Amoeba Music Berkeley for the latest Top 5 Hip-Hop chart and run down of new hip-hop releases in the Telegraph Avenue Amoeba store.  These include the recommended number one album of the week; Freestyle Fellowship The Promise (on Brooklyn's high caliber Decon Records, the new one from Little Brother's
Phonte Charity Starts at Home on the Hbd Label Group, Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV which will likely be charting through end of the year, and Superstar Quamallah & Deqawn's Talkin' All That Jazz on Cotter Records/Brick Records (this is a real good release that i just got through checking out). Also recommended is J-Live S.P.T.A. on Triple Threat Productions. Long one of my favorite, albeit long running underrated hip-hop talents, J-Live has been tirelessly putting it down for a decade and a half.  And as his label name (Triple Threat) and new album cover and title imply he is a triple gifted artist - an MC, DJ, and producer - and he is amazing at all three - as proven on the new S.P.I.T. which stands for Said Person of That Abilility.

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Hip-Hop Rap Up 01:14:11: T.I., Saigon, J-Live, Steinski, Beans, Cypress Hill, NAMM + More

Posted by Billyjam, January 14, 2011 08:19pm | Post a Comment
Amoeba Music Hollywood Weekly Hip-Hop Top Five Chart: 01:14:11


1) Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)
 
2) Diddy-Dirty Money Last Train To Paris (Bad Boy Records / Interscope)

3) Nicki Minaj Pink Friday (Cash Money/Universal)

4) Cee Lo Green The Lady Killer (Elektra Records)

5) T.I. No Mercy (Grand Hustle/Atlantic)
  
Thanks to my man Burgess (of Healamonster & Tarsier fame) for this week's Hip-Hop Top Five Chart from the Hollywood Amoeba store that includes many of the already high-profile major releases of the past month or more. Kanye West, Cee Lo Green, Nicki Minaj, and Diddy (with his in-demand new dancefloor driven project Dirty Money) are all once again included here, as is the latest release from T.I., No Mercy on Grand Hustle via Atlantic Records,

Released on December 7th, the long overdue No Mercy is T.I.'s seventh album and his first new release T.I.since 2008's popular Paper Trail. For this release he pulled out all the stops, with guest appearances from some of today's hottest names, including Kanye, Eminem, The-Dream, Christina Aguilera, and Chris Brown, who is featured on the single "Get Back Up." Meanwhile, production duties are spread out among studio masters such as Danja, who produced "My Love" & "Knock You Down;" Dr. Luke, who produced "Magic" & "Right Round;"  and Jim Jonsin, who worked his magic on "Whatever You Like" & "Lollipop." Note that in addition to the regular version of this CD there is also a Deluxe version that offers two bonus tracks as well as special packaging.

Hip-Hop Rap Up 11:05:10: Celph Titled & Buckwild, N*E*R*D, Jneiro Jarel, Pitbull, Madlib, SF Giants, Roach Gigz, J-Live, DJ Shadow, Lil Wayne, Homeboy Sandman + More

Posted by Billyjam, November 5, 2010 05:05am | Post a Comment
Amoeba Music San Francisco Weekly Hip-Hop Top Five Chart: 11:05:10

Celph Titled & Buckwild
1) Celph Titled & Buckwild
Nineteen Ninety Now (No Sleep Recordings)

2) Madlib Medicine Show No.10-Black Soul (Stones Throw)

3) N*E*R*D Nothing (Star Trak)

4) Jneiro Jarel Fauna (Kindred Spirits)

5) Pitbull Armando (Mr. 305 Inc.)

Lots of new releases on this latest chart, care of Luis at the San Francisco Amoeba store, including in the number one slot Celph Titled & Buckwild's Nineteen Ninety Now on No Sleep Recordings. It finds the perfect pairing of the famed D.I.T.C. DJ & producer Buckwild with the Florida emcee Celph Titled (of the Demigodz and Army of the Pharaohs fame) and the results are most impressive. Killer production plus lots of tasty cutting and scratching (care of Mista Sinista of X-Ecutioners) perfectly compliment Celph Titled and the other emcees (many fellow D.I.T.C. folks) that guest throughout the 16 track CD, including Sadat X, Grand Puba, AG, Diamond D, Treach (Naughty By Nature), R.A. The Rugged Man, Apathy, Chino XL, and Vinnie Paz of Jedi Mind Tricks. Lyrically, Celph bears it all and tells it like it is (and was), even addressing his bygone beef with Cage from a decade ago.

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AMOEBA MUSIC HOLLYWOOD HIP-HOP TOP FIVE: JUNE 5, 2008

Posted by Billyjam, June 5, 2008 08:00pm | Post a Comment

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.

PAPOOSE, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? + OTHER RAP TALES

Posted by Billyjam, May 17, 2008 08:10am | Post a Comment

Earlier this week upon hearing the news involving the highly emotional but equally ridiculous actions of hip-hopper Papoose, the fiancé of jailed rapper Remy Ma, the voice of Dr. Phil popped into my head and I could just hear the TV psychologist uttering his trademark words to the "Mix Tape King" Papoose: "What were you thinking?" 

Really though! On Monday when he was scheduled to wed his lady behind bars, Papoose (born Shamele Mackie) attempted to sneak a skeleton handcuff key into Rikers Island where he was headed to the New York City jail's altar.

Once guards found the key on him he got ejected from Rikers and banned from the facility for six months.  What a dummy!  Everyone (especially gangsta rap aficionados) should know that whenever you go visit someone in jail or prison that they search you thoroughly from head to toe, and often beyond. What were you thinking, Papoose? 

And if that ain't enough, then the following day when Remy Ma (born Reminisce Smith), who was arrested for last summer outside a downtown NYC club allegedly shooting her former friend Makeda Barnes-Joseph (who she said robbed $3000 cash out of her purse), got sentenced in the New York Supreme Court to eight years in prison, Papoose was in the (court) house and was not happy. "Fuck you. Put me in jail muthafuckers!" and "Lock me up! Fuckin lock me up" were among the impassioned wishes the visibly emotional Papoose shouted towards court officers upon Remy's sentencing.