1) Gangrene Vodka and Ayahuasca (Decon)

2) Lushlife Plateau Vision LP (Western Vinyl)

3) Homeboy Sandman Subject Matter (Stones Throw)

4) Eligh & Amp Live Therapy At 3 ( Legendary Music/Live Up/Traffic)

5) Wiley Evolve Or Be Extinct (Big Dada)

For a change from the usual sales-based Amoeba weekly hip-hop chart this week's Hip-Hop Top Five Chart is my own personal favorite brand new and soon to drop hip-hop releases. Topping the chart is the amazing Oh No and The Alchemist group Gangrene's third and latest collaboration Vodka and Ayahuasca on Decon. Also here is the recent Eligh & Amp Live Therapy At 3 ( which gets better and better with repeated listens and the brand new Wiley
album Evolve Or Be Extinct - a double CD on Big Dada which will appeal equally to grime and hip-hop heads. Not out yet but worthy of mention It is the forthcoming Lushlife album Plateau  Vision LP, which will be released in mid April on Western Vinyl, and is sure to propel to mainstream visibility the South Philly producer/emcee/musician who made waves last year with the much buzzed about mixtape No More Golden Days. As with that mixtape, which was an actual cassette tape, this new CD album blends mid 90's underground NY hip-hop flavor with Dilla/Madlib type production values. This is the sort of well produced album that will make you want to also track down the instrumental version. It's pure pleasure to listen to and Lushlife's flow is a treat to listen to. He is also joined by several well chosen guests throughout the 11 track album including Styles P, Canadian rapper Shad, Heems of Das Racist, and ex-Titus Andronicus garage rocker Andrew Cedermark who joins him on the album track "The Romance of the Telescope." My personal favorite tracks are the throwback eigthies/nineties sounding "Anthem" and the opening "Magnolia" which, over a dreamy hypnotic backdrop and a series of well chosen samples, finds Lushlife rapping about such things as graffiti and Coney Island. This is already making its way to becoming one of my year end top albums.

The recently published Bronx Biannual Issue No. 2 (Akashic Books) is the sophomore publication in the ongoing new ten-part black literary series that was founded and is edited by Bronx born and bred hip-hop journalist//author Miles Marshall Lewis. The 230-page collection boasts over a dozen talented hip-hop generation writers, both known and unknown, all carefully selected by Lewis, who began his hip-hop journalism career back in the early nineties working on the first edition of Vibe magazine as an intern. From there, he worked his way up to become that magazine's editor. He has also been editor at XXL and written for numerous publications including LA Weekly, Rolling Stone, Village Voice, and Essence.

A few years ago he published his first book, Scars of the Soul Are Why Kids Wear Bandages When They Don't Have Bruises, and last year kicked off the Bronx Biannual literary series.

I recently caught up with Miles, who splits his time between New York and Paris these days. I also caught up with one of Bronx Biannual's contributors -- noted hip-hop journalist and author Michael A. Gonzales, who co-wrote the groundbreaking hip-hop book Bring the Noise: A Guide: A Guide to Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture (Crown, 1991) and has written stories and reviews for Spin, High Times, Mode, XXL, The Village Voice and Entertainment Weekly. He penned the piece "Blues For Sister Rose" in Bronx Biannual No. 2.