E-40 is a hustler; you can’t deny that. The Bay Area legend pulled one over on consumers last March when he released a double album, sold separately on the same day, and he’s back at it again, taking things to a whole new level on his triple album, The Block Brochure: Welcome To The Soil 1, 2 & 3. 40 Water showed his hustler ambitions by selling this as both a package deal and three separate albums. Combined, The Block Brochure has sold over 32,000 units, making E-40 the real winner this week. Miami crew ¡MAYDAY! did more than scratch the surface this week by landing an unexpected Top 200 slot with the release of their Stange Music debut, Take Me To Your Leader. The album features Tech N9ne, Ace Hood, and Murs, among others. In other release news, DJ Premier & Bumpy Knuckles scanned a respectable 3,000 units of their collabo album, KoleXXXion. You can check out photos from their album release party here. Check back next week to see if Nicki Minaj lands the number 1 spot with her zany sophomore effort Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.
E-40 “The Block Brochure: Welcome To The Soil 1, 2 & 3″ – 9,578 (76% digital)
E-40 “The Block Brochure: Welcome To The Soil 2″ – 7,940 (3% digital)
E-40“The Block Brochure: Welcome To The Soil 1″ – 7,817 (2% digital)
E-40“The Block Brochure: Welcome To The Soil 3″ – 6,867 (0% digital)
¡MAYDAY! “Take Me To Your Leader”- 5,439 (33% digital)
DJ Premier & Bumpy Knuckles “KoleXXXion” – 3,099 (26% digital)
Actual Proof “Black Boy Radio” – 607 (100% digital)
Gift Of Gab “Next Logical Progression” – 495 (54% digital)
All those who have written Odd Future off as a fad should now stand corrected. The 11 person collective nearly matched the success of the more publicized debut from leader Tyler The Creator, by moving more than 40,000 units this past week. The OF Tape, Vol. 2 plays through like a crazy jumbled, eclectic playlist, and it seems like OFWFKTA wouldn’t have it any other way. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for the rap stable now that Earl Sweatshirt is back in the mix. Rev. Run’s youngest son, Diggy, surprised many by cracking the top 20 this week with his aptly titled commercial debut, Unexpected Arrival. Diggy managed to outdo Machine Gun Kelly’s EP, which pushed a meager 8.5k, which isn’t terrible considering it is being billed as the soundtrack to a book. I’m personally not sold on Diggy, but it’s undeniable that the kid has a bright future ahead of him. If you have consistently checked this column, you may have realized that Christian rap has become a growing trend. This week, the Christ-praising MC Swoope made an impressive showing by selling over 2,000 copies of his album Wake Up in the digital space alone. I took the time this week to check out a couple of singles that have been smashing the charts on iTunes. I knew B.o.B was killing the game, but I’m still surprised that he did 400k plus in one month for “So Good,” especially considering this track is readily available for free download just about everywhere. Check back next week to see what numbers Bay Area legend E-40 puts up with the release of his triple album, The Block Brochure.
Odd Future “The OF Tape, Vol. 2″ – 40,110 (60% digital)
Diggy “Unexpected Arrival” – 20,725 (15% digital)
MGK “Half Naked & Almost Famous” – 8,517 (100% digital)
Swoope “Wake Up”- 2,353 (100% digital)
Slaughterhouse “Hammer Dance – Single” – 11,197 (100% digital) *Two week total* [listen to track]
B.o.B “So Good – Single” – 433,252 (100% digital) *Four week total* [watch video]
The crowd snapping pictures of the man of the evening
On Thursday March 8th, Big K.R.I.T. celebrated the release of his third critically-acclaimed mixtape, 4evaNaDay, at the Highline Ballroom in Manhattan. NYC showed love for K.R.I.T. and K.R.I.T. showed it right back by putting on a tremendous performance. All photos by Lucas Alvarado / Far Fetched Future.
iHipHop will return to SXSW this year for yet another incredible official showcase. Being that it’s our third-year in a row bringing the best and brightest in all of hip-hop to Austin, Texas, we had no choice but to pull out all of the stops. We couldn’t have done it all by ourselves, so big shout outs to our co-presenters Babygrande and The Madbury Club.
This year GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan will headline the event, while being backed by none other than Grammy Award winning band Grupo Fantasma (Brownout). The showcase will also include performances by east coast hardcore veterans M.O.P. as well as Curren$y’s entire Jet Life crew (Trademark Da Skydiver, Young Roddy, Smoke DZA, Sir Michael Rocks of The Cool Kids, Fiend, Cornerboy P & Street Wiz), Marz Lovejoy, Flatbush Zombies, T. Mills, Airplane Boys, Mod Sun and DJ Statik Selektah.
Whether you’re a hip-hop head or a casual listener, this is place to be. The showcase will take place on Saturday March 17, 2012 at Haven, located at 409 Colorado, Austin. Doors at 8pm. For more information, visit SXSW.com
This could actually be the first case of swagger jacking in hip-hop history. Robert Paradiso recently directed a documentary on how The Sugar Hill Gang lost a large amount of money to impostor versions of the group. As it turns out, Master Gee and Wonder Mike, known for the very old-school hits “Rapper’s Delight” and “Apache,” did not own the rights to group’s name. Their record label, Sugar Hill Records, trademarked the name and sent random guys posing as Tthe Sugar Hill Gang on the road. Paradiso explains, “They’re really big in Europe and as I discovered there’s reasons for that. There’s laws now currently in the States where you can’t present a band without original members and if you do, you have to let the audience know. That’s a rather recent thing here. It was more traditional for that to happen in Europe.“ According to the filmmaker, the original group now owns the rights to “Rapper’s Delight” and “Apache,” although they can only collect the profits made within the last 7 years and beyond due to a statute of limitations. Check out the trailer for the movie below; it’s kind of funny.
