1) Jay-Z The Blueprint 3 (Roc Nation/Atlantic)

2) Kid Cudi Man On The Moon: The End of Day (Motown / Pgd)

3) Drake So Far Gone (Cash Money)

4) Brother Ali Us (Rhymesayers)

5) Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Links Pt II (ICEAL)

Five of the big hip-hop releases from over the past few weeks are still selling well at Amoeba Music Hollywood this week, including Jay-Z's final installment in his Blueprint trilogy, Kanye West protege Kid Cudi's debut, and Cash Money's newest star Drake. Also doing well are Only Built 4 Cuban Links Pt II by Wu Tang member Raekwon and the new joint from the Rhymesayers' Brother Ali, which was number one at the San Francisco Amoeba last week. Other tight new hip-hop releases include the brand new The Day After Forever (Gold Dust) by Bay Area crew Crown City Rockers, which has great tracks such as "Clap Your Hands" (feat. Aima) and "That's Life" (featuring Jason Jasper). Tonight there's an album release party for the album at The Independent in San Francisco that will be hosted by Lyrics Born along with DJ D-Sharp and, of course, Crown City Rockers performing. And if that ain't enough, they will be joined by LA’s Breakestra, whose new album Dusk Til Dawn is also just out, and Spaceheater (Blast Furnace is also just out). Tickets $20. Doors 8pm. More info here. 

Speaking of undeniably great Bay Area hip-hop talent, the Souls Of Mischief just launched a big worldwide tour and have also just released a track from their forthcoming Prince Paul produced new album, Montezuma's Revenge. The corresponding "Montezuma's Revenge Tour '09" consists of 35 stops in six weeks, including Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Berlin, and LA, where the group played the Troubadour two nights ago. They play Slims in San Francisco on October 20th (with Ghostface) and the Avalon in San Jose the following night. Prince Paul plays on select dates with the longtime Oakland Hiero crew, comprised of emcees A-Plus, Opio, Phesto, and Tajai. So does Swollen Members. Montezuma's Revenge will arrive in Ameoba Music and other stores on November 10th on their Hiero Imperium Records.

Easily the hands down winner in the "so bad it's good" category is the above clip from the ultra cheesy late 80's "children's musical" film Creating Rem Lezar, in which Rem and friends (channeling Godspell?) sing, dance & prance their way through Central Park and other parts of New York City.

This clip and the others from Creating Rem Lezar, including the one in which a mannequin of Rem comes to life and then, donning a blue mullet, sings two kids to sleep, are so bad and so wrong on so many levels, and yet, for some strange reason, they are addictive viewing. 

Written, directed, produced and choreographed by Scott Zakarin and made in 1989, Creating Rem Lezar went straight to video but never made it as far as DVD. Recently rediscovered thanks to YouTube, this hard to find VHS is much coveted and apparently fetches $50 or more online. Meantime you can view numerous clips from it on YouTube, found under titles like "bad 80's video" or "Worse 80's video."

Last week, while visiting the San Francisco Amoeba Music store, standing in the hip-hop aisle gazing at its thousands upon thousands of vinyl and CD titles I found myself drooling in awe. The seemingly endless selection is like an encyclopedia of hip-hop, which is what I mentioned to Luis (the store's hip-hop buyer), who offered to do a quick run-through video tour (above) of Amoeba SF's truly amazing hip-hop section for those who have not recently or ever visited the Haight Street store. This section offers the most comprehensive Bay Area rap selection (including tons of DVD titles) I have ever seen -- thanks in large part to Luis, who really knows and cares about the Bay's homegrown hip-hop flava.

One aisle over from hip-hop is the soul / r&b section and it is damn good, too, with an exhaustive selection of soul from the very latest back to the classics of bygone decades. In that section I ran into Dr. Goldstein of Free Gold Watch (the nearby Haight district store that makes some of Amoeba's T-shirts and was featured on the Amoeblog last week) and knowing his love for both soul and Amoeba I asked if he would do a quick run through tour of the Amoeba SF soul section. He obliged (video below) and made the very good point, especially in these MP3 happy days, about how when you buy a CD or record you are getting an artifact -- not to mention much higher quality audio.

In 1999 the independent East Bay hip-hop-themed online company The Giant Peach was formed by Karen Dere with planning help from Stinke, whom she had worked closely with at the Hierogyphics' company (the pioneering Oakalnd hip-hop entity that was one of the very first to embrace the Internet in the mid 1990's -- years before most people even had an email address, nevermind a fully functional online distribution outlet for indie hip-hop). Working at the Hieros' company for several years coupled with the previous years' experience and expertise she culled from her time as a DJ, etc. at KALX radio, Karen had gained enough insight and knowledge to launch The Giant Peach.

Initially created as "a means for independent labels (with an emphasis on hip hop) and artists to produce their own line of garments and distribute their products to the masses" -- as its mission statement lays out -- the Giant Peach (GP) has grown by leaps and bounds over the past decade but has still pretty much stuck to its initial plan of creating a bridge between artists/labels and fans and of exhaustively carrying the clothing lines of popular design artists and collectives, and always with an emphasis on those from the Bay Area.

The wonderful summer-long Amoeba's Monday Movies @ Space15Twenty in Hollywood (the weekly free outdoor screenings of music-related films curated by Amoeba Music) ends tonight with a screening of the highly recommended Anvil! The Story of Anvil. If you have to miss the screening, the DVD of this underdog story about endearing Canadian metal band Anvil comes out next week, October 6th, on DVD, and will be available at Amoeba Music. Last Monday evening there was another Amoeba-curated screening of the film up in the Bay Area at Elis Mile High Club. 

I just loved this film so much since it is totally unlike your typical, run of the mill music documentary. LA Weekly summed it up pretty well when they dubbed it "Hilarious and achingly touching." In fact, it is so touching and personal, yet always respectful of its subjects, the two lifelong metalhead buddies Robb Reiner and Steve "Lips" Kudlow, that you instantly connect and feel watching it that it has to have been made by someone whom the band members really, truly trusted and felt totally comfortable around.

Not surprisingly then, Sacha Gervasi, the director of the documentary, was once a roadie for the band. And for this riveting documentary he went out on the road again with Anvil, a band who looked all set to make it big in the 80's metal world but somehow never did. He's made a film that will remind you of Spinal Tap except that it is real, and more importantly, reverential. Last week I caught up with the film's director to ask him about this refreshingly unique music documentary. 
.
Amoeblog: I love your film, including how it flows so naturally and seems to have taken on a life or direction of its own. Did the film turn out differently than maybe what you had initially expected?