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) Wu-Tang Legendary Weapons (Entertainment One Music)

2) Teeko Light Up the Darkness (Mellow Orange)

3. elZHi  Elmatic (2 DopeBoyz)

4) San Quinn Can't Take the Ghetto Out A Niigga (Prominent House Records)

5) MellowHype Blackenedwhite (Fat Possum Records)

The Wu-Tang's anticipated latest, Legendary Weapons, dropped last week and since has shot to the number one position on the latest Amoeba Music San Francisco hip-hop chart, which comes courtesy of Luis at the Haight Street store. So is it a great album and does it live up to the Wu-Tang (formerly Wu-Tang Clan) legacy? Yes and no. No it doesn't top 36 Chambers - but then nothing will ever surpass that timeless, pitch-perfect, hip-hop masterpiece that the Shaolin crew burst onto the scene with eighteen long years ago. But yes it is a really strong hip-hop album from the Wu who, even though they appear here minus the major player Genius/GZA and the lesser Wu warrior Masta Killa, still deliver a kick ass album with Legendary Weapons whose production is handled by the production trio of Fizzy Womack, Noah Rubin, and Andrew Kelley who keep true to the RZA formula (RZA is credited as the "executive producer" which I assume means he popped into the studio here and there to look over the trio's shoulders and make sure they delivered that unique WU flavor.)  As well as the RZA on board for this release are Wu-Tang core members Ghostface, Raekwon, Method Man, Inspectah Deck, Cappadonna, and U-God as well as cameos from a variety of talents including AZ, M.O.P., Termanology, Trife Diesel, and Killa Sin. Below is a sample track from the album; "Never Feel The Pain," that features Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Tre Williams.

      
As a follow up to this week's Amoeblog on current attention-grabbing Fillmore rapper DaVinci comes this overview of the San Francisco district's rap/hip-hop past care of Amoeblog reader and longtime SF rap player Jim Browskee who has drawn up this list of Fillmore (aka Fillmoe, aka The MOE, aka Da Filthy Moe) rap acts exclusively for the Amoeblog. While, he admits, not completely inclusive of every rap act to come from this SF hood it does include all of its key players; both high-profile acts such as Rappin' 4-Tay (the Fillmore artist introduced to the world in 1988 by Too $hort on his Dangerous Crew compilation (with the song "She's Hooked") and later to be the first Fillmore rap act to international pop success with his huge 1994 hit "Players Club" (first on the indie label Rag Top Records and then picked up by Chrysalis/EMI) gain  and such lesser known acts as Click Clack Gang who some heard of via their appearance on The Free Messy Marv Movement CD compilation or maybe via San Quinn when they guested on his track "Fillmoe Nigga." 

Props to Too $hort and all the other Bay Area rappers who are volunteering their collective talents and time to an upcoming benefit concert to aid cancer-stricken South San Francisco toddler Juliana Pena. Back in April, right after celebrating her second birthday, the young girl (pictured left) was diagnosed with neuroblastoma - a rare form of cancer that arises in immature nerve cells and affects mostly infants and children. Juliana is in stage 3 as the tumor has spread in her body. She has already undergone five rounds of chemotherapy, surgery, and numerous hospital stays. Next she will have to have a bone marrow transplant - all part of the costly twelve to fifteen months of treatment the young girl will need to undergo. Then, even after all that treatment, Juliana’s faces a 40% to 60% odds that the neuroblastoma will not reoccur.

After getting word of her devastating (and costly) plight Too $hort and fourteen other Bay Area hip-hop artists, including Hugh EMC, San Quinn, Rappin 4-Tay, Big Rich, Roach Gigz. Equipto, Napalm, Gold Toes, Baldhead Rick, Voice, Young Mind, Gullie, DJ Lazy Boy, Epicenter Sound, and  CoBlooded the Great, all agreed to perform in a special benefit concert on the Labor Day Weekend to raise money for Juliana's rising health care costs. Luckily her father, Jesus Pena, is good friends with SF rapper CoBlooded the Great who took it upon himself to organize and produce this worthy benefit concert. “When I saw the pain she was suffering and the toll on the family, I knew I had to help,” CoBlooded said, noting how, despite the bad rep that rap artists so often get, that this is another example of positivity within the Bay Area rap world. “We can show you that these rappers are doing positive things in the community,” he said of the benefit show that is the Labor Day Shakedown and will take place at Space 550 in San Francisco.

1) Curren$y Weekend at Burnie's (Warner Bros)

2) Shabazz Palaces Black Up (Sub Pop)

3) Pete Rock/Smif-n-Wessun Monumental (DuckDown)

4) Philthy Rich & Messy Marv Neighborhood Superstar Part 3 (Town Thizzness)

5) Matthew Shipp/Beans/William Parker/Hprizm Knives From Heaven (Thirsty Ear)

6)  Raashan Ahmad For What You've Lost (PID)

Big ups to Luis at Amoeba San Francisco for this latest hip-hop chart that includes in the number one slot the anticipated new release from one of hip-hop's most buzzed about (albeit under the radar) artists these days, New Orleans's underrated rap talent Curren$y and his sixth studio album, Weekend at Burnie's. The album, which is named after the 1989 comedy movie of the same name, is Curren$y's second full length for Warner since his exit from Def Jam. A fuill decade in the rap game Curren$y has the distinction of being simultaneously incredibly well known by a large segment of the hip-hop community (who've followed his career via the free mixtapes and official releases he's been dilegently cranking out) but relatively unknown on a mainstream level. This could all change with Weekend which packs a lot of crossover ready material.