1) K'Naan Country, God Or The Girl (Octane/A&M)

2) Zion I Shadow Boxing (Live Up Records)

3) Macklemore The Heist (Macklemore, LLC.)

4) Prince Paul & DJ P. Forreal Negroes On Ice (The Red Lion Group)

5) Rapsody The Idea of Beautiful (Jamla Records)

Thanks to the ever knowledgeable, hip-hop loving E-Lit at the Berkeley Amoeba store for taking time to do a run down of all the new and recent hip-hop releases at Amoeba both vinyl and CD. In the new top five chart the number seller is the brand new K'Naan Country, God Or The Girl on Octone/A&M. "Love is harder than war. I’ve had the chance to write about my experiences in a difficult and violent life. But when the suffering and the pain is something that comes from within me, it’s harder to react and to write about that," said the Somali Canadian multi-talent of the new album's content which features the lead pop-rap single that dropped several months back, "Is There Anybody Out There?" and features Nelly Furtado (see below). On Country, God Or The Girl is the internationally popular artist's attempt to, he says, address "the internal wars, rather than the external ones, which I'd been preoccupied with on my previous albums."

Other releases on the new chart include the ever-popular Seattle, WA rapper Macklemore, who earned many new fans c/o his recent viral video for "Thrift Shop," legendary producer Prince Paul teaming up with DJ P. Forreal, and North Carolina female emcee Rapsody with her most impressive official debut The Idea of Beautiful on Jamla Records. The album on which she displays a sick flow again begs the age old question in hip-hop: how come there are still such a small ratio of female rappers to male rappers? Oakland duo Zion I's newest album, which is their eight to date, continues to sell as the pair of Zumbi and Amp Live continue their current tour. Other excellent new/recent releases include Homeboy Sandman's First of A Living Breed on Stones Throw (see video below for new album track "Not Really"), and the brand album which drops next week from Rhymesayers artist P.O.S. We Don't Even Live Here which takes hip-hop into whole new territory. Note the CD comes with real nice packaging with a great booklet with some strange but intriguing photo art.

127 Bands, 5 Stages, 3 Days and 1 Mean Sunburn.

"Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival - April 17-19th, 2009 or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Find 30 Reasons To Love a Weekend in the Desert."

- By Scott Butterworth

  

Day #10 - Artist #10 - K'naan:

1) Brother Ali The Truth Is Here (Rhymesayers)

2) Zion I The TakeOver (Gold Dust Media)

3) Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique (Capitol/Reissue)

4) V/A Fly Girls! B-Boys Beware: Revenge Of The Super Female Rappers! (Soul Jazz)

5) K'NAAN Troubadour (A&M/Octone Records)
 
Thanks to Tunde at the Berkeley Amoeba Music store for this week's hip-hop top five chart. All of the same five titles are likewise selling very well at all the Amoeba stores. On the list is Bay Area duo Zion I's critically acclaimed sixth release The TakeOver; the wonderful Soul Jazz female rap retrospective Fly Girls! B-Boys Beware: Revenge Of The Super Female Rappers!; the Rhymesayers collective's Brother Ali's tight new CD/DVD set The Truth Is Here; Somalian artist K'NAAN, who plays at Winter Music Conference this weekend (details below); and the reissue of the Beastie Boys' landmark hip-hop album Paul's Boutique.

Recently re-released to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of its initial 1989 release, the reissue of the Beatie Boys' acclaimed Paul's Boutique by Capitol Records comes in both CD and vinyl versions. The LP reissue version is on 180 gram vinyl, which comes in a two-sided, four-panel gatefold sleeve. It also includes a digital download card to access bonus audio band commentary. The album, which was produced by the Dust Brothers and recorded in both Los Angeles and Brooklyn, may not have been as commercially successful as Licensed To Ill, but it was a far greater quality recording and one that truly stands the test of time as proven by such tracks as "High Plains Drifter," "Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun," "Car Thief," "Shadrach," and "Get On The Mic."

Meanwhile, the track "59 Chrystie Street" was titled in a nod to an early residence of the Beastie Boys, back earlier in the 80's when they were young punkers about to morph into fulltime hip-hoppers. That early collective living/recording space address in the Lower East Side of Manhattan was what Mike D once described in an interview as "a floor in this Chinese Sweatshop building on Chrystie Street."