1) The Cool Kids When Fish Ride Bicycles (Green Label Sound, C.A.K.E. Recordings) 

2) The Throne (Jay-Z & Kanye West)
     Watch The Throne (Def Jam) 

3)  Wu-Tang Legendary Weapons (Entertainment One Music)

4) Sole & the Skyrider Band Hello Cruel World (Fake Four)

5) Hassaan Mackey & Apollo Brown
     Daily Bread (Mello Music Group)

Thanks to the ever knowledgeable E-Lit at the Berkeley Amoeba Music store for taking time to talk with the Amoeblog for this week's Hip Hop Top Five chart and also for running down (in video above) some of the cool new releases and recent arrivals in the Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley store. I love both that BDP Criminal Minded USB stick, gun key-chain, and DOOM's PIL-packaging inspired, silver can, vinyl box set! One of the new local releases mentioned by E-Lit is the new solo joint, Ilyich on Solidarity Records, from San Francisco artist Equipto who is known for such things as his membership of longtime SF hip-hop crew Bored Stiff and his collaborations with Andre Nickatina. In support of this new album he did an instore performance at Amoeba San Francisco last week, August 11th. Click to see photos of the Equipto Amoeba instore.

Sadness struck both Amoeba and the local Bay Area hip-hop community this week with the tragic passing of the much-loved Anthony Marin (aka Big Ant) who, at the young age of 37, died of heart failure last weekend. 

A DJ/producer and multi-instrumentalist, not to mention an incredibly knowledgeable musicologist, Big Ant had been a fixture on the local hip-hop scene for many years -- ever since he moved north from LA in the nineties. Before working at Amoeba SF he had worked at Tower Records in the South Bay and Cue's in Daly City.

If you were into the local DJ or hip-hop scene you would have seen Big Ant over the years at countless events. A large framed man with a warm hug and a winning smile, plus an unbridled knowledge of all types of music (far beyond hip-hop), he had DJ'ed all over, played damn near every instrument it seemed (including guitar/drums/keyboards in Black Fiction - the experimental rock band he was a member of along with fellow Amoebites Jason Chavez and Tim Cohen), and was a ham at Karaoke.  This evening, Friday June 6th, from 5PM to 9PM, those who knew this great man will gather in his honor at Milk, which is directly across the street from Amoeba on Haight St.

For more in depth tributes to Big Ant, visit 4AM/Jason Chavez's MySpace or the text/photo dedication to him on the homepage of the Amoeba website, where Jason Chavez, his best friend, wrote so poignantly: "The best lesson he taught me is the lesson that every loved one that passes teaches us, that we are all still alive and we need to live, love and find our purpose and passions for ourselves and our passed loved ones who are watching us and guiding us towards our destinies. Everyone stay up, he'd want us to."   R.I.P. BIG ANT.

AMOEBA MUSIC SAN FRANCISCO HIP-HOP TOP FIVE (6.6.08)

1) J-Live Then What Happened? (BBE)
2) TOPR The Marathon of Shame (Gurp City)
3) Giant Panda Electric Laser (Tres Records)
4) Subtle Exiting Arm (Lex)
5) The Cool Kids The Bake Sale (Chocolate Industries/A&M)