And the winner is......Too $hort in the ongoing beef / rap battle between Too $hort and Messy Marv who, as instigator, is indeed messy - not to mention foolish to take on the respected "Godfather of Bay Area rap." That's my personal opinion but already it seems that most other Bay rap fans are similarly taking the side of $hort in this seemingly mean spirited & uncalled for attack by Marv - an undoubtedly talented rapper but one known for starting beefs with others.  This battle (essentially an attack) began recently on Twitter by Marv but $hort did not take the bait and respond, at least initially. Soon after the beef escalated from online to the studio where Messy Marv., a couple of weeks ago, recorded "Class of 84 (Fuck Too $hort)" in which his main gripes with  Too $hort seem to be that he was not born in the Bay, that he has not helped other artists enough to Marv's liking, and that he is "old." Note that at thirty something (his self-penned bio says he's 31 but some say he's closer to 40 than 30) Marv is not exactly a young cat himself in this rap game.

                              

1)  Messy Marv and Berner Blow (Blocks and Boat Docks) (Bern One Entertainment)

2) Exile Am/Fm (Traffic)

3) Camu Tao King of Hearts. (Fat Possum/Def Jux)

4) Cut Chemist Sound of the Police (A Stable Sound/Soul Kitchen)

5) Tha Dogg Pound 100 Wayz (Gangsta Advisory Recordingz Inc)

I would not be surprised if you were to look up the word prolific in the dictionary -- at least in the Bay Area rap dictionary -- and a picture of Messy Marv popped up beside the definition. The longtime Bay Area rapper has been consistently releasing new material at such an astonishing rate that it would appear that he never sleeps, never leaves the studio. If you recall just two short weeks ago the new Messy Marv overseen SF collection Thizz City was on the Amoeba Top Five chart. Now this week Marv is back with another new collaborative release, Blow (Blocks and Boat Docks), which shot straight to number one at the San Francisco Amoeba. Released on Bern One Entertainment, this collaboration with Berner features Messy Marv on every track, and is a sequel to their joint project Blow, released late '09. As the title and album cover above implies, this more of that drug slanging school of rap music.

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) Chali 2na Fishmarket Part 2 (Decon Records)

2) Amp Live Murder at the Discotech (Child's Play Records/OM)

3) Drake Thank Me Later (Cash Money Records)

4) The Jacka & Lee Majors The Gobots 2 D-Boy Era (The Artist Records)

5) Messy Marv Millionaire Gangsta (Prominent House Records)

Thanks to Luis at the San Francisco Amoeba Music for this week's Hip-Hop Top Five Chart, which features lots of West Coast flava (including SoCal's Chali 2na) and a bit of the Dirty South from the Canadian born, former kids TV show (Degrassi) star turned Cash Money Records (and Lil Wayne protege) rap sensation Drake (who did a good job at the recent VH1 Hip-Hop Honors The Dirty South) with his highly anticipated full length rap/RnB debut Thank Me Later on Lil Wayne’s Young Money imprint through Cash Money/Universal. The Bay Area is well represented with the latest from the ever prolific Messy Marv (Millionaire Gangsta on Prominent House Records), the new joint from popular rapper The Jacka teaming up with Lee Majors (The Gobots 2 D-Boy Era on The Artist Records), plus the anticipated release from Amp Live, Murder at the Discotech on Child's Play Records/OM Hip-Hop.

2009 was another good year for Bay Area rap/hip-hop, with a string of new releases dropping over the past twelve months, including the thirty four full-length releases listed below. Appearing in no particular order, these choices are based mainly on releases culled from the Amoeba Music San Francisco Weekly Hip-Hop charts compiled by Luis at the Haight Street store over the past year. Not every single Bay Area hip-hop release is included here (feel free to nominate any worthy omissions in the comments below), but many of them are, and they give a good sense of the vibrant Bay Area music scene for the year of 2009.

Three albums appeared on early 2009 Amoeba Hip-Hop charts but did not make the list below since they technically were each 2008 releases (released late last year):  E40's The Ball Street Journal, released on Sic Wid It and distributed through Warner Brothers; San Quinn's From A Boy To A Man (SMC/Fontana); and Keak da Sneak & San Quinn's Welcome To Scokland on Ehustl, which combined the best of "the Sco" (San Francisco) with the "O" (Oakland) on an album that was extremely popular in the Bay in '09.

North Oakland rapper Mistah F.A.B. may not have released a new solo album in 2009 but he did pop up on countless other artists' releases over the past year, including most recently on The Grouch's just released Three Eyes Off The Time. Mistah F.A.B  appears on the CD track "Already" with hella popular Fresno emcee Fashawn. F.A.B. also appeared on Fashawn's critically & commercially acclaimed official debut album, following a string of mixtapes, Boy Meets World on Loud, which was a hit at all three Amoebas. Mistah F.A.B. also released joint full-length projects in 2009 with both the Alchemist and Glasses Malone, with whom he unleashed The Sideshow CD.