AMOEBA MUSIC SAN FRANCISCO HIP-HOP TOP FIVE 07:18:08

1) Lil Wayne Tha Carter III (Cash Money/Universal)

2) Messy Marv Hustlas Motivation Mixtape

3) Jean Gray + 9th Wonder Jeanius (Blacksmith/Warner)

4) Immortal Technique The 3rd World (Viper)

5) Nas Untitled (Def Jam)

This week's number one seller at the Amoeba Music San Francisco store should come as lil surprise. It was Tha Carter III by Lil Wayne, which, despite advance leaks and rampant downloading of its tracks, still managed to sell big numbers (by today's music industry standards) and hit the number one spot on countless charts (both airplay & sales) from Billboard (3 weeks straight @ #1) to KMEL to Amoeba etc. Luis in the hip-hop department at the Haight Street Amoeba, who kindly supplied this week's Hip-Hop Top Five, said that Bay Area music buyers love Lil Wayne just as much as national audiences (especially considering the historic Bay Area/Dirty South connections), but that their dedication to Bay Area rap/hip-hop, including this week's chart's number two album, is unbridled.

Since its inception Amoeba Music has received numerous awards for its three locations, Berkeley, San Francisco, and Hollywood, with the latest award going to the Berkeley Amoeba store which was voted "Best Record Store" by the East Bay Express in their recent annual "Best of the East Bay" edition.

"There is NO place like Amoeba, not even in New York," wrote the accompanying text for this award, which was all the more significant since it was in the "Readers' Choice" section & hence was based on what a wide cross-section of Express readers sincerely think about Amoeba Music.

To help celebrate this latest award for the store, Amoeba will be part of the big party this Friday (July 11th) from 7PM until midnight at the Oakland Museum of California at 1000 Oak Street, where all of the winners in the East Bay Express'  recent "best of the East Bay" awards will be honored. If you go - and you should - be sure to stop by the Amoeba Music booth where you can say wassup and register to win free prizes,

The actual theme of this party is "Old School" and hence such classic acts from from back in the day as Flipper and The Uptones -- the longtime East Bay ska outfit who formed back in 1981 when most of its members were still attending Berkeley High School. Below is a video clip of the Uptones nowadays with them performing "Skanking Fool"  a year ago at the Metro in Oakland - a location currently closed.  Others performing at this big mixed arts event include Dyloot (Deep Voices) and Destroyer.