1) T.I. No Mercy (Grand Hustle)

2) Andre Nickatina/Smoov-E The King & Mr. Biscuits (I-Khan Dist.)

3) Big Rich Built to Last (Big Rich Music)

4) Buff1 & Rhettmatic Crown Royale (ASide)

5) Redman Reggie (Island Def Jam)

Special thanks to Luis at the San Francisco store for this week's top five chart. Beyond the top five, Luis notes that, "Then there's the Kanye, Curren$y and Damu the Fudgemunk, which is super dope!" The latter is also a favorite of DJ Inti at the Berkeley Amoeba, where it was a hip-hop chart contender last week. The latest SF Amoeba chart includes some local Fillmore district SF flavor from both Big Rich and Andre Nickatina. His latest outing is a joint project with his regular studio collaborator, the Tennessee to The Bay transplant Smoov E, who also sometimes goes by the name Smoov Biscuits. That explains the title of their new joint release, The King & Mr. Biscuits, which appears on Nicatina's label, I-Khan Distribution.  The eleven track album features great tracks such as "For The Green (Remix) and "Genuine Draft (Remix)."


Meanwhile, Big Rich, who last year dropped Heart Of The City, is back with his impressive latest two-part release. Built to Last (Big Rich Music) is both an album and a documentary (CD + DVD) from the successful SF artist who has had a mixed year. Musically, he's kept busy and been artistically satisfied, he says, having spent the greater part of 2010 out on the road.

1) Exile Am/Fm (Traffic)

2) Bun B Trill O.G. (Rap A Lot)

3) Slum Village Villa Manifesto (E1 Entertainment)

4) Trek Life Everything Changed Nothing (Mello Music)

5) Messy Marv Thizz City (SMC)

In continuing the theme of his wonderful solo release from last year, Radio, Exile delivers this week's number one album at Amoeba, the brand new AM/FM, which is actually culled from that 2009 release. By reworking and remixing elements of Radio the talented Los Angeles producer born Aleksander Manfredi, who many came to know as one half of the emcee/producer duo of Blu & Exile, has crafted a whole new twenty one track album. In fact some of the tracks on AM/FM sound completely new with nary a trace of the earlier album's sound to them. And while Radio was more of an instrumental album (with the occasional vocal sample off the radio) showcasing Exile's studio chops with little other distraction, AM/FM shines more light on the mic wreckers. These include many of his compadres such as Blu (check out a track featuring Blu, "Love Line," below), Alchemist, The Grouch & Eligh, Evidence, and Aloe Blacc (with whom he formed his first group, Emanon). Standout tracks include the the Shafiq Husayn remix of "It's Coming Down," "Mega Mix" featuring Fashawn, Big Tone, and ADaD, and the DJ Day remix of "In Love." In addition to AM/FM, I would recommend tracking down both Radio and Exile's 2006 album Dirty Science.  

1) Sage Francis Li(F)e (Strange Famous Records)

2) B.o.B. presents The Adventures Of Bobby Ray (Rebel Rock/Grand Hustle/Atlantic)

3) Madlib Madlib Medicine Show #4: 420 Chalice All-Stars (Stones Throw)

4) Roc Marciano Marcberg (Fat Beats)

5) Black Eyed Peas
The E.N.D. (Interscope)

Amoeba Hollywood's hip-hop chart features the new album from Sage Francis Li(F)e on the artist's own Strange Famous label in the number one position. The record is also doing extremely well at both the San Francisco and the Berkeley Amoeba stores. Peep last week's Amoeba Music Hip-Hop Weekly Round Up for more background info on this recommended new release from the alternative rap act, as well as upcoming California dates/venues on the ongoing Sage Francis tour, which reportedly is selling advance tickets at a rapid rate. All the other chart entries this week at the SoCal Amoeba, including B.o.B. presents The Adventures Of Bobby Ray, Madlib's Madlib Medicine Show #4: 420 Chalice All-Stars (Stones Throw), and Long Island, NY emcee Roc Marciano's Marcberg on Fat Beats, have also been best sellers lately at Amoeba Berkeley and San Francisco. Meantime, the Black Eyed Peas' The E.N.D. (Interscope), which is coming up on the one year anniversary of its release date in a few weeks, is like the Energizer bunny. It just keeps on going and going and selling and selling -- thanks in great part to the group touring and the hook-laden hit singles it keeps spinning off.

Last week, while visiting the San Francisco Amoeba Music store, standing in the hip-hop aisle gazing at its thousands upon thousands of vinyl and CD titles I found myself drooling in awe. The seemingly endless selection is like an encyclopedia of hip-hop, which is what I mentioned to Luis (the store's hip-hop buyer), who offered to do a quick run-through video tour (above) of Amoeba SF's truly amazing hip-hop section for those who have not recently or ever visited the Haight Street store. This section offers the most comprehensive Bay Area rap selection (including tons of DVD titles) I have ever seen -- thanks in large part to Luis, who really knows and cares about the Bay's homegrown hip-hop flava.

One aisle over from hip-hop is the soul / r&b section and it is damn good, too, with an exhaustive selection of soul from the very latest back to the classics of bygone decades. In that section I ran into Dr. Goldstein of Free Gold Watch (the nearby Haight district store that makes some of Amoeba's T-shirts and was featured on the Amoeblog last week) and knowing his love for both soul and Amoeba I asked if he would do a quick run through tour of the Amoeba SF soul section. He obliged (video below) and made the very good point, especially in these MP3 happy days, about how when you buy a CD or record you are getting an artifact -- not to mention much higher quality audio.

2) Andy Allo UnFresh (Allo Records)

3)  Peanut Butter Wolf 45 Live (Stones Throw)

4) John Forte StyleFREE: The EP (Theory 7)

5) V/A Definitive Jux Presents 4 (Def Jux)

6) Blue Scholars Bayani Redux (Duck Down)

7) Trick Daddy Finally Famous: Born a Thug, Still a Thug (Dunk Ryder Records)

8) Lil Boosie Superbad: The Return of Boosie Bad Azz (Asylum Records)

9) Cage Movies for the Blind (High Times Records)

10) Beastie Boys Hello Nasty (Capitol)

Super special thanks to the ever knowledgable Luis @ the hip-hop department of Amoeba Music San Francisco for always being so down to supply the Amoeblog with up to the moment news on what's popping at the SF store, new music- wise. For the second week in a row Luis has provided us with a Top Ten due to the wealth of releases (both new and reissues) dropping recently. Above you can see the chart in video and text forms, while below are a series of videos by several of the artists in this latest Top Ten chart.