1) Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)
 
2) Diddy-Dirty Money Last Train To Paris (Bad Boy Records / Interscope)

3) Nicki Minaj Pink Friday (Cash Money/Universal)

4) Cee Lo Green The Lady Killer (Elektra Records)

5) T.I. No Mercy (Grand Hustle/Atlantic)
  
Thanks to my man Burgess (of Healamonster & Tarsier fame) for this week's Hip-Hop Top Five Chart from the Hollywood Amoeba store that includes many of the already high-profile major releases of the past month or more. Kanye West, Cee Lo Green, Nicki Minaj, and Diddy (with his in-demand new dancefloor driven project Dirty Money) are all once again included here, as is the latest release from T.I., No Mercy on Grand Hustle via Atlantic Records,

Released on December 7th, the long overdue No Mercy is T.I.'s seventh album and his first new release since 2008's popular Paper Trail. For this release he pulled out all the stops, with guest appearances from some of today's hottest names, including Kanye, Eminem, The-Dream, Christina Aguilera, and Chris Brown, who is featured on the single "Get Back Up." Meanwhile, production duties are spread out among studio masters such as Danja, who produced "My Love" & "Knock You Down;" Dr. Luke, who produced "Magic" & "Right Round;"  and Jim Jonsin, who worked his magic on "Whatever You Like" & "Lollipop." Note that in addition to the regular version of this CD there is also a Deluxe version that offers two bonus tracks as well as special packaging.

And this just in -- the new number one video clip of 2008 will shortly become the above clip of the televised incident earlier today in which George W. Bush, during a press conference from his unannounced visit to Iraq, had a pair of Size 10 black leather shoes thrown at him by an Iraqi TV journalsit. Bush reacted instantly, ducking and avoiding being hit by either shoe, but clearly he was as surprised as everyone else in the room.

Now, if you have been watching TV or have been online on news sites over the past few hours you will undoubtedly have seen this gripping piece of footage, but over the next few days & weeks you can be sure it will fast become the number one most replayed video of 2008 online as well as on TV. I bet that during all the year end wrap up shows on television it will upstage every other video clip of the past year -- one rich in symbolic eye catching stories, including even Sarah Palin's Thanksgiving Turkey clip. 

In the meantime it will no doubt fuel editorial rantings from the likes Bill O'Reilly on one side as well as the legions of Dubya haters on the other side for some time. Furthermore, this incident will forever mark or bookend the last days of the Bush presidency in the history books unless something else even more shocking happens to, or is brought about by, Bush before he leaves office.

Additonally, It will also undoubtedly inspire conspiracy theories galore. For starters, in Arab culture the sole of a shoe is the ultimate insult. The above picture, courtesy of the TImes in London, is of a Shia protester last month striking an image of President Bush with his shoe as an expression of contempt during a rally in central Baghdad. Plenty to go on there, but some will take it further. Some conspiracy theorists will dwell on the meaning of the size of the shoe or the color of the shoes or the order (left, right) in which they were thrown.