Due to the sheer volume of really great new hip-hop dropping these days, this is the second Amoeblog hip-hop round up for this week. Click here to check out part one from Friday, which included the Berkeley Amoeba Music Top Five plus news items on A.G. Cubano, DJ Teeko, Diplo, and NaS.

Meantime, this second part round-up comes complete with my personal top ten hip-hop chart. This chart is song oriented rather than album based. The songs are all new 2008 releases, unless otherwise noted, and are culled from various formats including vinyl, CDs, mixtape CDs, 7" singles, and MP3s. Most should be available at Amoeba Music now or in the very near future. Ask Amoeba's always helpful & informed staff for assistance if you ever have questions on any music.

                    JAMOEBLOG TOP TEN HIP-HOP TRACKS: 08:10:08

1) NaS "Black President" (Def Jam)
2) Jean Grae + 9th Wonder feat K Hill, Edgar Allen Floe, & Joe Scudda "Smashmouth" (Blacksmith)
3) KRS-One "Pick It Up" (KOCH)
4) Rza as Bobby Digital feat. Monk & Thea "Drama" (KOCH)
5) Stacy Epps "Cosmik Dust" (JapanNubianMusic)
6) Keak da Sneak, E40 & Clyde Carson "All I Know" (KOCH)
7) DJ Quest "Killing The Cut" (ZQ Records)
8) Tony Matterhorn "Big Belly Guns" (Mad Decent)
9) dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip "Look For The Woman" (Strange Famous)
10) Esen "Please Don't Leave Me" (Take A Record)

BERKELEY AMOEBA MUSIC HIP-HOP TOP FIVE: 08:08:08
 
1) Diplo Top Ranking Santogold (Mad Decent)
  
2) NaS Untitled (Def Jam)
  
3) Zo! & Tigallo Love the 80's (Hall of Justus Records)
  
4) Lil Wayne Tha Carter III (Cash Money/Universal)
  
5) The Roots Rising Down (Def Jam)

Just 366 days to 09:09:09. Meantime, happy 08:08:08 and thanks to Tunde at the Berkeley Amoeba Music for this week's hip-hop top five on which the number one album of the week comes care of superstar DJ/producer Diplo who, in keeping with what he did on MIA's Piracy Funds Terrorism mix, delivers the goods with a killer 75 minute mix of Brooklyn female vocal force Santogold mixed with a ton of other sources. Incorporating music off of her recent debut release along with other material, Diplo serves up original blends/mixes of Santogold and other artists' that run the gamut from dubstep to Dirty South. The non-stop, hour and a quarter, 35-track mix, which is heavy on the old school and reggae flavors, includes a refreshingly diverse mix of music that Diplo makes fit perfectly together. Included are Barrington Levy, Three 6 Mafia, Devo, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Sister Nancy, The Clash, and B-52's.

Zo, along with Tigallo (aka Phonte) from Little Brother, have merged forces to record and release this week's chart's number 3 entry: the limited edition (reportedly only 2,500 copies pressed & individually numbered) Love the 80's. A throwback, fun r&b based EP (right down to the cover art), it combines the smooth, slick production by Zo topped with Phonte’s vocal chops as they cover some of their favorite songs from that colorful decade known as The 80's. Also included are remixes by Trackacademicks and Nicolay.

Amoeba Music San Francisco
Hip-Hop Top Five: August 01, 2008

1) NaS Untitled (Def Jam)

2) Jean Grae + 9th Wonder Jeanius
     (Blacksmith)

3) People Under The Stairs The OM Years 
     (OM hip-hop)

4) Husalah & B-Luv Tonka Boyz
    (SMC Records/City Hall)

5) RZA as Bobby Digital Digi Snacks
    (KOCH)

A shout-out to Luis in the hip-hop department at the San Francisco Amoeba Music for this week's Top Five chart, which includes the new Bay Area indie rap release from the rhyme duo Husalah & B-Luv, Tonka Boyz, that features guest spots from such local faves as PSD, Yukmouth, The Jacka, and Dubee. Also charting high this week is the double CD retrospective by People Under The Stairs (PUTS) from OM hip-hop. Disc one is "The OM Years" and includes such crowd pleasers as "San Francisco Knights," "The Cat," and "Jappy Jap," while disc two (my personal fave, since it has some stuff I had not heard before) is titled "B-sides & Rarities."  

Luis admits that he is not really feeling the new RZA as Bobby Digital (Digi Snacks) and I have to fully agree with him.This, the artist's fourth solo record, not only fails to match any of his Wu Tang output, but also falls short of his own previous solo work. However, as is often the case with overall mediocre albums, there are a few great songs to be found on the 15 track Digi Snacks, including "Drama" featuring Monk and Thea and "You Can't Stop Us Now" (feat. fellow Wu warrior Inspectah Deck).

Marcus Reeves, former editor of the the Source hip-hop magazine and contributor to such publications as the New York Times, the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and Vibe magazine, recently had his book Somebody Scream! (Rap Music's Rise To Prominence In The Aftershock of Black Power published by Faber and Faber Inc.

Like Jeff Chang's critically acclaimed hip-hop history Can't Stop Won't Stop, Somebody Scream likewise takes an analytical look at hip-hop -- a musical form that, like rock before it, is now all grown up and going through its own kind of mid-life crisis. Cornel West called Reeves' book "a strong  timely book for the new day in hip-hop" and he is right.

I recently had the opportunity to catch up with the East Coast based author to talk about his new book, Somebody Scream,  and its subject matter: hip-hop. Here is that dialog:

Amoeblog: First up, how hard is it writing a book on a topic that is still unfolding around you as you report on its subject matter?

Marcus Reeves: Surprisingly, it wasn’t that hard to write because before I even started I had a beginning, a middle and an end. I’d already picked out who were the most influential rap artists—the ones who lead their particular era—strung their stories together by chapter and let the narrative unfold. And the narrative was easy because, like so many who’d watched the story of commercial rap over the last 30 years, it was also the story of my life. All the history and events that the music reflected, and I talk about in the book, were things I lived through and impacted my life. The last chapter of the book, which discusses what events shape the music now, helped capture all those moments that were still unfolding.

AMOEBA MUSIC SAN FRANCISCO HIP-HOP TOP FIVE 07:18:08

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

2) Messy Marv Hustlas Motivation Mixtape

3) Jean Gray + 9th Wonder Jeanius (Blacksmith/Warner)

4) Immortal Technique The 3rd World (Viper)

5) Nas Untitled (Def Jam)

This week's number one seller at the Amoeba Music San Francisco store should come as lil surprise. It was Tha Carter III by Lil Wayne, which, despite advance leaks and rampant downloading of its tracks, still managed to sell big numbers (by today's music industry standards) and hit the number one spot on countless charts (both airplay & sales) from Billboard (3 weeks straight @ #1) to KMEL to Amoeba etc. Luis in the hip-hop department at the Haight Street Amoeba, who kindly supplied this week's Hip-Hop Top Five, said that Bay Area music buyers love Lil Wayne just as much as national audiences (especially considering the historic Bay Area/Dirty South connections), but that their dedication to Bay Area rap/hip-hop, including this week's chart's number two album, is unbridled.