Drake ~ The Motto Featuring Lil Wayne & Tyga (Official Video) from OctobersVeryOwn on Vimeo.

For ever-popular rap star Drake's latest, brand new video, released yesterday, for "The Motto" featuring Lil Wayne and Tyga, the top selling artist whose recently released second album Take Care (from where this song is culled as a bonus track) went straight to number one on the Billboard pop album charts (and #1 at Amoeba too the week it was released last month) travels to the Bay Area.

 The video is an homage to the Bay in general and in particular to Mac Dre (the late great Vallejo rapper born Andre Hicks whose mom Wanda Salvatto appears at the beginning of video) and some other Bay Area landmarks including Amoeba Music San Francisco at the 1:10 mark in the above video - making it the latest in a long line of music videos, movies, and TV commercials to feature Amoeba Music. 

Drake's new excellent video features lots of other Bay landmarks (a lot of footage shot on Treasure Island) and familiar rap figures including E-40 and Drake lovingly shouts out Mac Dre and even paraphrases some of his music ("Feelin Myself") in the song/video. You can buy Drake's Take Care on CD and also Take Care on vinyl from Amoeba Music.

1) Lil Wayne  The Carter IV (Cash Money/Universal)

2) The Throne (Jay-Z & Kanye West)
     Watch The Throne (Def Jam) 

3) Casual The Hierophant (F.B.M.G.)

4)  Game The R.E.D. Album (Geffen)

5)  Smoke DZA Rolling Stoned (Fat Beats)

Again this week much thanks go to E-Lit at Amoeba Music in Berkeley for taking time to talk with the Amoeblog for the latest Hip Hop Top Five chart entries plus an overview of the numerous new underground hip-hop releases, in both CD and vinyl formats.  These include Open Mike Eagle's Rappers Will Die of Natural Causes, the full-length by Candy's 22 in CD format, A Girl and Her Gun ("drugged out country & western rap music" - as E-Lit describes the unusual rap release), the ever prolific Blu's (of Blu & Exile fame) latest remastered version of Jesus, and Kirby Dominant & Factor's Champagne Nightmares on Fake Four Recordings. Scroll down a bit to check out the video for the album track "Orca" off the duo (also named Champagne Nightmares) off this fine latest pairing of the unique East Bay emcee with the Canadian producer who first joined creative forces back in 2004 on One Way Ticket on Side Road Records. Their new video was directed and produced by Stuey Kubrick in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

1) N*E*R*D Nothing (Star Trak)

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

3) Cee-Lo Green
Lady Killer (Elektra Records)

4) TIE: Lil Wayne I Am Not A Human Being (Cash Money/Universal)
Kid Cudi Man On The Moon 2: The Legend of Mr Roger (Universal/Motown)

5) Eligh Grey Crow ( Legendary Music/ Alpha Pup)

N*E*R*D's great new album Nothing on Star Trak, which was written about in last week's Hip-Hop Rap Up, is number one at the Berkeley Amoeba Music this week, followed  by Madlib's tenth release in his ongoing twelve part series on Stones Throw. Medicine Show No.10-Black Soul finds crate digger extraordinaire Madlib serving up a mix (although it should be noted not all are mixed together) of some rare soul from the mid to late 70s right when the music, as Stones Throw notes, was giving way to disco, when the groove was on its way to the boogie, when funk was on its way to fonk. Released on Tuesday is the brand solo release from Cee-Lo Green (of Goodie Mob and Gnarls Barkley fame); the album Lady Killer on Elektra Records got a very positive review on the day it dropped by Smiles Davis in the Amoeblogger's post Get Off Farmville and Go Get Cee-Lo's Lady Killer that raved, "this may very well turn out to be the best album of 2010." 

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.

1) Eminem Recovery (Aftermath, Interscope, Shady)

2)  Skyzoo & Illmind Live From The Tape Deck (Duck Down Music)

3) Black Milk Album of the Year (Fat Beats)

4) Waka Flocka Flame Flockaveli  (So Icey Ent./Asylum Records)

5) Gucci Mane The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted (So Icey Ent./Asylum Records)

New releases on the latest hip-hop top five chart from the Hollywood Amoeba Music store include both Gucci Mane's third & latest (and best) album to date The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted and the anticipated debut from Mane's protege, Waka Flocka Flame, which surprisingly does not disappoint. Note this rapper's cameos to date had been kinda lackluster and the subject of much dissing on the Internet. (If you haven't heard it, check out the Shawt Bus Shawty parody that spoofs him, Gucci, etc.) Titled Flockaveli (no doubt in a nod to 2Pac's Makeveli), the 23 year old Waka Flocka Flame (known round the dinner table at home as Juaquin Malphurs) is part of the popular Atlanta based So Icey Boyz (signed to Gucci Mane's So Icey Entertainment) and also is a member of Gucci's Brick Squad. Waka appeared on Gucci Mane's last album, 2009's The State vs. Radric Davis. Also last year he created a buzz with his mixtape Shoot Me Or Salute Me. The title would prove to be darkly ironic considering that the rapper was shot some months later (January this year) in a roadside robbery when he stopped at a car wash on National Highway in GA.