1) Jay-Z Blueprint 3 (Roc Nation/Atlantic)

2) Fashawn Boy Meets World (Loud)

3) Sean Price Kimbo Price (Vision Mktg)

4) Del the Funky Homosapien & Tame One Parallel Uni-Verses (Gold Dust Media)

5) Sene & Blu A Day Late & A Dollar Short (Shaman Work)

Clearly Jay-Z is the king of the world, or at least of hip-hop right now. Not only is the phenomenally successful and popular artist number one (still) on the Amoeba Music chart with Blueprint 3, an album that came out almost two full months ago, and one that is doing equally well elsewhere, but last night Jay-Z along with Alicia Keys wowed the baseball world with a moving four minute performance of "Empire State Of Mind" (video above) during the World Series at Yankee Stadium. As a diehard, decades long fan & supporter of hip-hop music and culture from back when the genre was still being dismissed as a "passing fad," I found last night's well received performance another wonderful bit of validation and endorsement of a music form that I love and respect so much. In fact, so moving was last night's performance that it no doubt inspired the Yankees achieve their 3-1 win against the Phillies, which puts them at a tie, in this second game of the Series, which shifts to Philadelphia over the next three games, starting tomorrow, Saturday.

You gotta love this current UK TV commerical for Cadbury's chocolate that utilizes the classic electro track (longtime breakdance anthem) "Don't Stop the Rock"' by Freestyle as the perfect soundtrack to its two young stars' eyebrow dance. The 2009 production is by the ever innovative and popular A Glass And A Half Full production company, who last year produced the equally popular in the UK Cadbury's "Gorilla" TV spot that expertly utilized Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight" as its backtrack, as well as the Cadbury "Trucks" commercial (below) that used Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" as its soundtrack. So popular was the Cadbury's eyebrow dance with the public that it spawned a JiveBrow 09 contest (see highlights below) held by A Glass And A Half Full production company earlier this year.

 
1. David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
 (1972)
 2. The Smiths - The Smiths
  (1984)
 3. Tracy Chapman - Tracy    Chapman (1988)
 4. Indigo Girls - Indigo Girls
  (1989)
 5. Judy Garland - Judy At   Carnegie Hall (1961)
 6. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead (1986)
 7. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
 8. Madonna - The Immaculate Collection (1973)
 9. Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual (1983)
10. Antony & The Johnsons -
 I Am A Bird Now (2005)

According to a wide spectrum of gay music experts quizzed by Out Magazine, these are the top 100 gayest albums of all time.  To compile this Top 100 Gayest Albums of All Time, Out Magazine polled more than 100 actors, comedians, musicians, writers, critics, performance artists, label reps, and DJs, asking each to list the 10 albums that left the most indelible impressions on their lives. Out writes in this new report that "After receiving responses from Boy George, Rufus Wainwright, Cyndi Lauper, the Indigo Girls’ Amy Ray, Candis Cayne, Perez Hilton, Nate Berkus, Jake Shears, John Cameron Mitchell, Wilson Cruz, Justin Bond, Darren Hayes, Junior Vasquez, Bruce Vilanch, Janis Ian, the Cliks, Ari Gold, Holly Johnson, and a slew of others, we tallied the results to determine our top-100 list." 

Last night (10/19) I went to check out Z-Trip, who sold out Studio B in Brooklyn during busy CMJ week, and the DJ totally rocked it. As at his San Francisco concert a couple of months back at the Independent, he again broke out the full drum kit and between DJ'ing played some mean drums. In the true Z-Trip tradition, his set was as much (if not more) classic rock than hip-hop and included his ever popular rendition of Rush's "Tom Sawyer" remix (included on the recent All Pro Soundtrack on Decon).

But the classic rock track Z-Trip dug up and remixed live for the energetic twenty-something crowd that got everyone going the most crazy was Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." Everyone was going audibly wild to the point that it was like he was breaking out the hottest new record of the moment -- amazing, considering the Freddie Mercury-penned song was released (on the 1975 album A Night At The Opera) before most in the house were even born. Of course, the song never really went away -- it has constantly popped up in pop culture, including back in the 90's in Wayne's World and on jukeboxes and radio stations to this day. 

"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a truly brilliant piece of music: one that can transcend time and genres and always remain fresh sounding -- even if it is the Manualist doing his (fart sounding) microphone rigged sweaty-hand version (below, along with Waynes World, plus an a capella rendition by the UC Men's Octet.):