Hot on the heels of last Friday's much-discussed digital release of Dwayne Michael Carter Jr's way overdue fifth/final installment of the New Orleans rapper's long running series, this week comes the physical version of Lil Wayne's Tha Carter V (Cash Money). His twelfth studio album, Tha Carter V finally got released following years of disappointing delays and scheduling setbacks of the sequel to 2011's Tha Carter IV that's been reportedly completed and ready for release since 2014. Then finally last week, deliberately scheduled for release on the rapper's 36th birthday of September 27, 2018, Tha Carter V saw the light of day. With both older original V tracks alongside some brand new very recently recorded album tracks, Tha Carter V's release  resulted in a social media buzz and sales that led to the album been registered as the #1 Billboard 200 album this week. Reviews and social media posts about Tha Carter V focused on such things as the strengths of the overdue release notably such tracks as "Mona Lisa (feat. Kendrick Lamar),"  "Open Letter," "Let It Fly (feat. Travis Scott)," "Famous," and "Can’t Be Broken." There were also the inevitable comparisons to such superior installments as Tha Carter III, and recapping of Wayne's extended legal battles with Birdman and Cash Money that contributed to the album's delays.

This Amoeblog kicks off an extended series of Best Of 2017 in Hip-Hop lists (mostly top tens) that will attempt to cover as many aspects as possible of the ever expanding genre from over the past twelve months. These Best-Of lists will range from underground, slept-on artists that got little attention overall in 2017 to hugely popular and financially successful artists who dominated charts and media coverage in 2017. It will also include vinyl charts; both new and reissues, female hip-hop artists, top selling albums, top critically received albums,  top ten producer albums, and a list of posthumously popular artists in 2017. The series will even include a list of the top “Lil” rappers (artists with “Lil” in their name that made an impact in 2017).

Another  Best of 2017 in Hip-Hop will be a Top Ten list of the Top Selling Artists in 2017: based on a Forbes study comparison of their pre-tax annual incomes. Somewhat similarly, today’s list is also rooted in financial statistics; namely hip-hop sales of singles based on their Billboard chart positions, as well as taking into consideration other statistics. Each entry in the Top 10 Charting Hip-Hop Singles list below is based first on chart positioning on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and then on accumulated airplay statistics including online outlets. Each single featuring its accompanying music videos, the Top Ten goes in order from Number 10 up to Number 1. Parental warning: many of these videos contain explicit lyrics and/or imagery.

Despite the predominantly negative press that the recent Bay Area stop of the Rolling Loud hip-hop festival received, the Miami-founded festival (October 21st & 22nd in the Bay & scheduled next for SoCal December 16th & 17th) was an overall well behaved, peaceful music-loving affair. With a line-up of mostly new generation acts catering to a young, enthusiastic audience present to simply party (some too much) and enjoy the music, the majority’s good conduct was marred by the bad behavior of a handful. The two-day, two stages at Mountain View’s Shoreline Amphitheater included memorable performances from such artists as Travis Scott, ScHoolboy Q, Lil Uzi Vert, Young Thug,  21 Savage, Lil Yee, Lil Wayne and the Bay Area’s own Nef The Pharaoh.

This weekend the Rolling Loud hip-hop festival  rolls through the Bay Area this weekend (October 21 and 22) when it will set up music stages for both Saturday and Sunday at the Shoreline Amphitheater festival grounds in Mountain View. There  over 55 performances will be taking place across three stages.e These performers will include Kodak Black, Travis Scott, Lil Wayne, ScHoolboy Q, Lil Uzi Vert, Young Thug, Isaiah Rashad and a slew more including such homegrown talent as Nef the Pharaoh, Rexx Life Raj, and Philthy Rich.

Billing itself as "the biggest hip hop festival in the world" Rolling Loud, which will be in LA in December (Dec. 16-17),  originated in Miami Florida two years ago. There it snowballed from 6000 attendees in 2015 to selling-out to 40,000 attendees by this year.  Rolling Loud's twenty-something founders Tariq Cherif and Matt Zingler recently announced their festival's major expansion not just in the Bay Area and Los Angeles but by next year overseas in the UK, China, and Japan. For tix to the Bay Area two day click here. And general Rolling Loud info here.   And for those who cannot make it to the Bay Area stop of Rolling Loud this weekend note that Revolt TV will be live-streaming it via YouTube on this link beginning at 1pm both days and running til 11pm Saturday and 10pm Sunday.