Amoeba Music Hollywood Hip-Hop Top FIve 09:12:08
1) The Game LAX (Geffen/Interscope)

2) Young Jeezy The Recession (Def Jam)

3) The Game LAX (deluxe edition) (Geffen/Interscope)

4) GZA Pro Tools (Baby Grande)

5) Lil Wayne Tha Carter III (Cash Money/Universal)

Special thanks to Marques at the Hollywood Amoeba Music for this week's top five hip-hop albums, which includes hometown artist The Game's new album LAX twice. "The number three on the chart version of The Game is the deluxe edition of LAX which has three extra songs on it," notes Marques of the second (more limited pressing) version of the album that also costs a bit more to purchase. Other chart entries include the recently released Young Jeezy album The Recession, Lil Wayne's current hot seller Tha Carter III (sure to be on many year end lists), and the latest from GZA, Pro Tools. Meanwhile GZA's Wu-Tang buddy RZA (who supplies some production on the guest heavy Pro Tools album) will be one of the many performers at the upcoming We The People Music, Arts, and Cultural Festival happening at Los Angeles State Historic Park (1245 N. Spring Street) on Saturday, September 27th. Others scheduled to perform include EPMD (pictured), Fishbone, DJ Premier, Les Claypool, Suicidal Tendencies, Z-Trip, Dilated Peoples, Eeek-A-Mouse, Barrington Levy, Bassnectar, Free The Robots, B-Side Players, Roots of Creation, Markus James, Look Daggers, Tom Morello, and Flying Lotus, whose recent Warp release Los Angeles is one of the best albums of 2008. 

AMOEBLOG: I've heard many descriptions of your music, but how do you describe the music you make?

MOCHIPET: I like to think of my music as "experimental music," but more in a sense that I am always experimenting with new sounds and ideas. Not necessarily sounds that are new to the human ear, but sounds that are always new to mine. I used to try and always make sounds that no one has ever heard before but then I realized it doesn't matter if anyone else has heard it. It only matters if I had. Other people like to call my music. IDM, Glitch, Breakcore, etc etc..  But I just make music.

AMOEBLOG: According to the liner notes, your new album, Microphonepet , was recorded over a five year span but you don't give years for each track. In which years were most of the tracks recorded?

MOCHIPET: Yes, the songs were all spaced out and recorded over the past five years. I have always enjoyed making hip hop beats and collaborating with MC's. However, I never had enough for a full album, because it was not the only thing I did. But recently I had a chance to finish up these songs and compile them into a LP. The newest ones were "Girls and Boys and Toys" with Jahcoozi, "Banna Split" with Bicasso of Living Legends and E Da Boss, "Mr. Malase" (featuring Casual of Hieroglyphics, Dopestyle, and Humanbeings), and "Take You Down" (featuring Sindri andTaiwankid). The oldest one is probably "The Graduate" (featuring Dubphonics). The older ones were generally more sample based while the newer ones were more glitch and synth based.

Once again Amoeba Music has been immortalized in song. This time it is courtesy of the brand new album Show You The World by Cali hip-hopper The Grouch (out tomorrow, April 8, when he and the whole Living Legends crew will perform for free at Amoeba Hollywood @ 7PM).   Amoeba Music is name-checked in the song "The Bay To L.A." that features fellow Living Legends crew emcee MURS. The song -- off the 15-song new album from the LA artist with deep Bay Area history, not to mention Amoeba history, since we were the first store to carry the once struggling mid-1990's young hip-hop collective -- includes the lyrics, "the Bay to LA, like Amoeba player" - and with its distinctly Bay Area- flavored, synth-drenched infectious beat and catchy lyrics, "The Bay To LA" is the hit of the summer of 2008 just waiting to happen. I bet money on it. 

Also on the recommended new album from The Grouch is the observantly sharp & witty song "Artsy" (with lots of LA references) which has an equally great video (shot reportedly for just $3000), which you can see above. And the new Grouch album, his first since his collab with Zion I two years ago and his first solo in five years, is influenced greatly by the 2006 arrival in his life of his young daughter Rio, who is featured both on the album's cover art (see left) and on the new release's intro track.  The album and also the Living Legends new hip-hop collective project, The Gathering, are both on Legendary Music and are both dropping tomorrow (April 8th). To celebrate the two new releases, the entire collective will perform a free show at Amoeba Music Hollywood at 7PM which will be streamed (audio/video) live via this website. Don't miss it!