1) De La Soul's Plug 1 & Plug 2 present First Serve (Duck Down)

2) Georgia Anne Muldrow & Madlib Seeds (Epistrophik Pea)

3) Obie Trice Bottoms Up (Ingrooves/Black Market Ent.)

4) Pep Love Rigmarole (Hieroglyphics Imperium /Clear Label)

5) J Rawls presents Liquid Crystal Liquid Crystal Project 3 (Green Streets Int )

Thanks to E-Lit for the video above (shot earlier this week) in which he runs down all the brand new and recent hip-hop releases at Amoeba Music in Berkeley where new releases include Obie Trice's Bottoms Up (with an Eminem cameo), Nicki Minaj's  new 19 track CD Pink Friday...Roman Reloaded, Pep Love's Rigmarole  via the Hieroglyphics Imperium's Clear Label, and the latest installment in the J Rawls presents Liquid Crystal Liquid Crystal Project 3 on Green Streets. Meanwhile the top two sellers this week are the new De La Soul side project (second week in a row) by the legendary hip-hop crews Plugs 1 and 2 titled Plug 1 & Plug 2 present First Serve and released on the mighty Duck Down Records label. In close second place is yet another title to add to the hard working Madlib's already long discography - a collaboration with singer/musician Georgia Anne Muldrow - Seeds via Epistrophik Pea - which is described here on the Amoeba website as "a psychedelic wonder of an album with Muldrow’s sensual and swooping vocals backed by Madlib’s sick backdrop of processed samples, with underwater basslines, Stax guitars and devilish beats. It’s a match made in psych-soul heaven, as Muldrow weaves the human thread keeping swirling songs like the title track from floating away." No wonder it sold out and had to be reordered at the Berkeley store!

         


1) Wale Ambition (Warner Bros.)

2) Black Milk & Danny Brown Black and Brown (Fat Beats)

3) Lateef The Truthspeaker Firewire (Quannum)

4) People Under The Stairs Highlighter (Piecelock 70)

5) Mac Miller Blue Slide Park (Ingrooves)

Thanks to my man E-Lit at Amoeba Berkeley for taking time out of his day in video above to run down all the new and recent hip-hop releases for this week's Hip-Hop Rap Up which includes longtime Oakland emcee & Solesides/Quannum star Lateef The Truthspeaker's first solo outing: the star-studded Firewire on Quannum which includes such Bay Area hip-hop greats (and longtime collaborators) as DJ Shadow, Dan The Automator, Lyrics Born (his partner in Latryx), The Grouch, Del the Funky Homosapien, Headnodic, and Chief Xcel (who handles production). The new Lateef the Truthspeaker album track "Oakland" that features Del The Funky Homosapien & The Grouch and appears below in audio play mode, I predict will soon become the new Oakland anthem.