Since word of the passing of Prodigy of Mobb Deep broke two days ago, the proliferation of news reports and tributes to the famed New York hip-hopper has been surprisingly widespread.  Media, from small indie hip-hop outlets to mainstream news organizations around the globe, have all reported on the tragic passing of the 42 year old Queens, NY rapper/author/actor, who died suddenly in Las Vegas where he and longtime Mobb Deep partner Havoc had been in town for a concert a few days earlier. While the exact cause of death has not yet been announced it has been confirmed that the artist born Albert Johnson had been hospitalized for complications caused by sickle cell anemia, the degenerative disease that he has battled for much of his life and often publicly discussed including in his song "You Can Never Feel My Pain" off his 2000 solo debut H.I.N.C.  In a recent radio interview with the Breakfast Club, in which he addressed the disease that can creep up out of nowhere and make one ill, Prodigy said that, "I feel like I'm dying most of my life." Indeed periodically he would fall ill and have to be rushed to the hospital for treatment that included been administered morphine for relief from the pain. So much so that even his musical partner, the other half of duo Mobb Deep, Kejuan "Havoc" Muchita couldn't believe the fatal news of this week, telling TMZ that he assumed it was a "weird rumor" when he first heard it.

In 2017's vast and prolific, rapid paced music world, there's more new music being recorded and released than ever before. Consequently navigating all this new music has become an increasingly harder task, even in just one genre. For example in hip-hop, due to the sheer volume of music coming out, the quality underground stuff typically gets lost in the mix and pushed aside for the heavily promoted and sponsored artists. Even though there's more great new hip-hop being made than ever before, the casual music fan never gets to hear most of it. In 2017 it is harder than ever to filter out the gems from the deluge of music been unleashed, and at such a fast pace.

In the 2017 music industry business model the discrepancy, in terms of exposure, between popular and underground artists is greater than ever before. And nowhere is that gap more evident and calculable than on YouTube, the online destination where virtually every song (music video or audio-only versions) will get posted and rated by the number of views and percentage ratio of thumbs up. It's an uneven playing field where popular hip-hop stars routinely get millions of clicks in weeks while non mainstream, quality hip-hop artists might only garner several thousand views.

In the case of the Brown Bag AllStars' latest YouTube posted single "11  Steps (feat. Tash of Tha Alkaholiks)," the amazing new (digital only but physical version on its way to Amoeba) track has only mustered up a miserable 78 YouTube views since the artists posted the audio on May 30th. And even with Soulspazm, Inc reposting the audio clip of the song to YouTube in past week, it's only gotten an additional 83 views. That's a total of 161 views in over two weeks for a killer new hip-hop track from the longtime talented Brooklyn collective comprised of The Audible Doctor, J57, Soul Khan, E Holla, and Deejay Element, and on a track featuring the mighty Tash from Tha Alkaholiks crew who is truly in top form on this new track.  Damn!

                                                 Hip-Hop Top Twelve: Week Ending 06:17:17

1: 2 Chainz  Pretty Girls Like Trap Music (Def Jam)

2: Big Boi   (Epic) (upcoming vinyl LP version)

3: Various Artists Boombox 2: Early Independent Hip Hop, Electro And Disco Rap 1979-83 (Soul Jazz)
 
4: Flobots  Noenemies (Flobots Music)

5: Kool G Rap  Return Of The Don (Clockwork Music)

6: Jonwayne Rap Album Two (avail on LP/vinyl) Authors/Order Label)

1: J. Stalin My Dark Passenger (Livewire)

2. Blacastan The Uncanny Adventures Of Watson & Holmes  (Brick Records)

3. DJ Spinna  TB Or Not TB 12" (Local Talk)

4. Lupe Fiasco  The Cool LP  (Atlantic)

5. Notorious B.I.G. & Faith Evans
The King & I (also on vinyl/LP) (Rhino)

Topping the hip-hop top five of the latest new arrivals into Amoeba Music is prolific Oakland rap star / label owner J.Stalin's brand new album My Dark Passenger  which follows on the heels of his previous 2017 full-length I Don't Sell Dope No Moe. Unleashed just a scant three months ago, that album similarly dropped on his successful homegrown indie rap label Livewire Records. Although officially not to be released until this Friday, June 16th, the eleven track new album My Dark Passenger  has been available from Amoeba a week in advance. With such select album guest collaborators as Young Doe, Da Hoodstarz, J. Stew and  4rAx, My Dark Passenger delivers more of that uncompromising West Oakland proud rap style/flow that continues the (now) decades old tradition of raw no-holds-barred Oakland street rap that fans love and the mainstream (generally speaking) continues to sleep on. According to those in the know, there's even more J.Stalin music coming in 2017 including a reputed DJ Fresh collaborative full-length.  Scroll down to the videos below for a taste of J.Stalin in 2017 with both the audio-only of the LT Beats produced My Dark Passenger title track featuring regular collaborator/Livewire artist Joseph Kay whose got an upcoming album entitled Rated X, plus the music video for the  I Don't Sell Dope No Moe track "Realist to Run It" also featuring Joseph Kay. 

Following Ice Cube's hectic attention grabbing past few days, the rapper/actor and now sports mogul must turn his focus to ready for the launch of his ambitious newly created professional basketball league, BIG3. This past Friday, June 9th, the former N.W.A talent and solo rap star published his powerful provocative, anti-police brutality video "Good Cop Bad Cop" which marks a return to form for the once revolutionary rap artist and is one of three bonus tracks off the new 25th Anniversary Edition of Death Certificate, his second post N.W.A solo album originally released in December 1991. [released in May 1990, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted was Cube's debut solo). In the two days since the YouTube music video posting of the song, which revisits many of the themes addressed three decades ago in N.W.A classic that Cube co-wrote with MC Ren and Eazy-E, "Fuck The Police," the captivating new clip has gone viral garnering over 2.75 million  views by Sunday night.