1) Madlib Medicine Show #11: Low-Budget Hi-Fi Music (Stones Throw)

2) Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)
 
3) Nicki Minaj Pink Friday (Cash Money/Universal)

4) Ghostface Killah Apollo Kids (Def Jam)

5) Cee Lo Green The Lady Killer (Elektra Records)
 
This week's Hip-Hop Top Five Chart from the Hollywood Amoeba store comes to you at this generally quiet time in the music business right before all the new year's first crop of releases drop. Hence, we have many of the same titles from the past few weeks represented here, including the unstoppable Kanye West, Nicki Minaj (whose new video "Moment 4 Life (feat Drake)" premiered yesterday, Wu-Tang Clan's super-gifted Ghostface Killah, and Cee Lo Green. Cee Lo Green had a most successful and high profile past year and it looks like 2011 will repeat that pattern for the artist, who first rose to fame as a member of the Goodie Mob and then as one half of Gnarls Barkley (with Danger Mouse), and who enjoyed phenomenal global success in 2010 with the song "Fuck You" from his current album The Lady Killer. Cee Lo has been busy performing and recording including, as reported in the past week, a duet with controversial UK singer Amy Winehouse. The track will likely will appear on her comeback album slated for release later this year. According to the UK magazine NME, "The two recorded the song when Green visited Winehouse's house in St. Lucia."

Senselessly gunned down and killed during a random street robbery on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland ten years ago this month, Bay Area graffiti legend Mike "DREAM" Francisco's legacy has grown exponentially in the decade since his tragic murder. And tomorrow, Friday, Feb 5th friends, family, fans, along with those who never even met the late artist but who were somehow touched by his life, his work, and/or his spirit, will congregate en masse for the big annual DREAM DAY.

The sure to be packed event, which takes place at the New Parish on 18th Street near San Pablo in Oakland, will feature graffiti artists, DJs, b-boys and emcees all celebrating, through their respective elements of hip-hop culture, the life and legacy of the man known to many as King DREAM.

As well as graffiti art by DREAM's graffiti collective, the TDK CREW, there will be music provided by a long list, including F.A.M.E., emcee Equipto, DJ Apollo, Shortkut, Fuze, Myke One, Sake One, The Bangerz, and DJ Platurn. Former Amoeba Music Berkeley employee DJ Platurn is among those who actually never met DREAM but whose life was impacted by DREAM's work. "The first time I heard of Mike Dream was through Saafir's Boxcar Sessions. Not only did his art grace the cover but his voice on the record resonated with community and a sense of pride in his craft," Platurn commented earlier today. "I never knew the man personally, being a recent L.A. transplant around that time, but he was always someone that I knew to be a hero and legend in the Bay Area hip-hop game and I'm proud to honor his legacy in any way that I can."

1) BlakRoc Blakroc (V2/Cooperative)

2) Black Eyed Peas The E.N.D. (Interscope)

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

4) Fashawn Boy Meets World (Loud)

5) Oh No Dr. No's Ethiopium (Stones Throw)

If the newest Amoeba Music Hollywood hip-hop chart above looks similar to the SoCal store's chart from three weeks ago, well, that's because it is exactly the same. All the top selling hip-hop releases from the past few weeks' weekly charts at the Hollywood store have been consistently selling well and hence holding steady in their respective chart slots at the Sunset Blvd. store. Both Jay-Z and the Black Eyed Peas' now months-old 2009 releases continue to sell phenomenally well, and not just at Amoeba but across the nation also. They are still simultaneously holding down spots on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart, ranking at #9 and #31 respectively on the national sales based chart. Meantime, instrumental versions of seven of the great tracks off the recommended self-titled BlakRoc album, composed and performed by The Black Keys for the emcees Mos Def, Raekwon, Pharoahe Monch, Ludacris, etc etc, were unveiled this week on the website The Black Keys Fan Lounge.

In the male dominated music world, female DJs are in the minority, especially when it comes to hip-hop. And when it comes to female scratch DJs, aka turntablists, the number of female artists is even smaller. Exceptions include DJ Shortee, Kuttin Kandi, and the Bay Area DJ duo of Deeandroid and Celskiii, who have been busy perfecting their game for over a decade now.

Tonight the Filipino female DJ duo, who were invited on tour by KRS-One a few years back, will be throwing their popular twice-monthly Skratchpad turntablist event (every first and third Tuesday) at The Cellar in San Francisco. The event had been on hiatus for a few years and returned just this May. I caught up with the two Vallejo natives to ask them about their party (including its "funky freestyle jam") and other aspects of the hip-hop DJ music they both so passionately love. They, like many other diehards, spell "skratch" with a K.

Amoeblog: Can you run down the history of Skratchpad -- from the first time out to the revised 2009 version?

Deeandroid: We started Skratchpad at the (old) Sublounge in May 2003. The Resident DJs were Celskiii, Wint-One, Amerriica and myself. We had a desire to organize and start up an open turntable event, since the Bay Area is like a DJ mecca. We loved to skratch and party and really missed the inspiration from when they had night events like the Beat Lounge at Deco. Celskiii and myself
were very influenced by the Beat Lounge weekly party/DJ session that was held at Deco back in 1997, where we [were] exposed to a great selection of rare & original music from DJs that were very talented, guests and rotating DJ residents/turntablists that were making some noise in the DJ scene at that time. The showcases and DJ sets were amazing, from cats like Apollo, Vin Roc, Derrick D, Shortkut, Spydamonkey, Snaykeyes, etc. So when Beat Lounge stopped...years later, Cel, Winst-One and I thought it would be dope if we created our own space for the DJs in the Bay Area to network, come together, and just jam in honor of Beat Lounge and to inspire new heads and practitioners of the DJ arts.

1) E40 The Ball Street Journal (Sic Wid It/Warner)

2) San Quinn From A Boy To A Man (SMC/Fontana)

3) Bored Stiff The Sad Truth (SolidarityRecords)

4) Kanye West 808s & Heartbreak (Roc-A-Fella Records)

5) Ludacris Theater of the Mind (Disturbing tha Peace/Def Jam)

Thanks to Luis at the San Francisco Amoeba Music store for this week's Hip-Hop Top Five chart. Three of these five best sellers are homegrown Bay Area rap talent, including E40's anticipated The Ball Street Journal which, according to Luis, has been "selling well since it was released last Tuesday." The other two Bay Area new chart entries are from longtime San Francisco hip-hop acts: the Fillmore's San Quinn, whose latest From A Boy To A Man is selling especially well at the SF Amoeba, and Bored Stiff, whose The Sad Truth features many guests joining the multi-member crew including The Grouch and The Jacka of the Mob Figaz. Check the video interview below with Bored Stiff to learn more about this slept-on longtime local act. 

Regarding the other two new chart entries Luis says he is feeling one more than the other although, he stressed, each are "good in their own right." What does he think of Kanye West's new album 808s & Heartbreak which many, myself included, have been disappointed in? "Yes, it is hard to listen to as a whole, but if you play certain tracks individually you can see why many people are liking it and buying it. It deserves checking out," insisted Luis. And to his credit Kanye West deserves praise for always trying something new, as well as always sticking to his beliefs. Even if I am not always a fan of the man's music I will forever give him props for his brave outspoken post Hurricane Katrina "George Bush doesn't care about black people" statement.