1) Cage Depart From Me (Def Jux)

2) Alchemist Chemical Warfare (KOCH)

3) J-Dilla Dillanthology 2: Dilla's Remixes for Various Artists Remixes (Rapster)

4) Chali 2na Fish Outta Water (Decon)

5) Notes To Self A Shot In The Dark (BBE)

Single of the week: 

Kid Cudi "Make Her Say" (Universal/Motown)

Thanks to Luis (as seen in YouTube clip above), the hip-hop buyer at Amoeba Music, San Francisco, for this week's top five best selling new hip-hop CDs, plus the single of the week. Cage, this week's number one, even surpasses his last innovative outing Hell's Winter from four years ago. This new Def Jux album is bound to break the gifted New York progressive rap artist onto the mainstream. Just check out the video below for the new Cage album track "I Never Knew You." The song and accompanying video (directed by Shia Labeouf) have the same power and engaging urgency that Nirvana's breakout single/video "Smells Like Teen Spirit" did back in the early nineties. Coincidentally, Cage's notoriously troubled past, including mental health problems and drug abuse, draw some parallels to Kurt Cobain. Although thankfully it seems that Cage has gotten his shit together as far as the hard drugs are concerned, so hopefully he can stay mentally healthy & focused on his art and continue to make great albums like Depart From Me.

It has been almost two full weeks since Michael Jackson passed, but in that time the sudden and tragic death of the King of Pop has dominated the news worldwide. Even Sarah Palin's resignation as governer of Alaska last week -- a week after MJ's death -- was upstaged by Jackson news. 

And today, the day after the heavily publicized Michael Jackson funeral/memorial in LA, which drew a reported 31 million viewers in real time, stopping by the Amoeba Music San Francisco store further proved that the intense public absorption with all things Michael (especially his music) will likely last a good while longer.

Luis at the San Francisco Amoeba took time out to show me the MJ CDs that have been hot sellers at the store, including Thriller, Bad, Michael Jackson Number Ones, Vol. 1-Greatest Hits History, and Off The Wall. See below a video clip of Luis at Amoeba SF earlier this afternoon. Also this afternoon in San Francisco I caught up (by phone) with Dave Paul, who for the past few years has been throwing the popular Prince vs. Michael parties in SF and other West Coast cities where both he and fellow DJ Jeff Harris spin regularly. Paul has a pretty extensive Michael Jackson collection so I asked him to draw up for the Amoeblog a list of his party's Top Five Michael Jackson dance floor burners -- MJ songs that always get the dance floor going. His list, including a brief description of each song, is below, along with info on the next SF Prince vs Michael party, which should be pretty wild since it will be the first since MJ's passing. The video for "Don't Stop TIl You Get Enough" is also below.

Sadness struck both Amoeba and the local Bay Area hip-hop community this week with the tragic passing of the much-loved Anthony Marin (aka Big Ant) who, at the young age of 37, died of heart failure last weekend. 

A DJ/producer and multi-instrumentalist, not to mention an incredibly knowledgeable musicologist, Big Ant had been a fixture on the local hip-hop scene for many years -- ever since he moved north from LA in the nineties. Before working at Amoeba SF he had worked at Tower Records in the South Bay and Cue's in Daly City.

If you were into the local DJ or hip-hop scene you would have seen Big Ant over the years at countless events. A large framed man with a warm hug and a winning smile, plus an unbridled knowledge of all types of music (far beyond hip-hop), he had DJ'ed all over, played damn near every instrument it seemed (including guitar/drums/keyboards in Black Fiction - the experimental rock band he was a member of along with fellow Amoebites Jason Chavez and Tim Cohen), and was a ham at Karaoke.  This evening, Friday June 6th, from 5PM to 9PM, those who knew this great man will gather in his honor at Milk, which is directly across the street from Amoeba on Haight St.

For more in depth tributes to Big Ant, visit 4AM/Jason Chavez's MySpace or the text/photo dedication to him on the homepage of the Amoeba website, where Jason Chavez, his best friend, wrote so poignantly: "The best lesson he taught me is the lesson that every loved one that passes teaches us, that we are all still alive and we need to live, love and find our purpose and passions for ourselves and our passed loved ones who are watching us and guiding us towards our destinies. Everyone stay up, he'd want us to."   R.I.P. BIG ANT.

AMOEBA MUSIC SAN FRANCISCO HIP-HOP TOP FIVE (6.6.08)

1) J-Live Then What Happened? (BBE)
2) TOPR The Marathon of Shame (Gurp City)
3) Giant Panda Electric Laser (Tres Records)
4) Subtle Exiting Arm (Lex)
5) The Cool Kids The Bake Sale (Chocolate Industries/A&M)