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GAF-Hop |OTX| Long Live the Watcher

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C

cdyhybrid

Member
Critics are still necessary because not everyone has a network of internet friends to recommend them things (or even uses the internet).

In 20 years will they be obsolete? Maybe, but not today.
 
T

thabiz

Member
HiResDes said:
Blog critics are still critics. Anthony Fantano was in a metal band and plenty of Pitchfork reviewers have been in the industry or worked within labels and those dudes are the most biased and crooked ones.
Click to expand...

but its still fantano and pitchfork. ive seen shit doctors with phd's out the wazoo. your taking what i said and applying it to the general populous. just because you worked in the industry or whatever, it still doesnt give you a free pass on being douchebags.
 
P

Pickles the Firecat

Banned
I just like reading different opinions on music tbh. I think for the most part people have very personal relationships with music that don't always transfer from one to another. So looking at the personal experiences of others is fun and at least interesting on one level and can help inform your own personal connection with the work on another. The technical merit of an artist is something I'd rather have a direct conversation about because you can't frame that in a constructive way in a review format. I need the back and forth of response-reply.

It rubs me the wrong way when people position themselves as experts but there's things to take away from that approach too.
 
N

Nitsuj23

Member
thabiz said:
i still value an opinion from somebody that has done it, than someone who merely glimpses from the fringes. in everything in day to day life.

there are very few critics who are active in the scene beyond going to concerts and downloading mp3's. this is why i value any blog over a paid publication any day of the week. yes lots of blogs are on the pay, but i think im hitting the correct ones.
Click to expand...

Would you rather have Nas or Des tell you about good albums from the past five years?
 
P

PlayDat

Member
It's always been funny to me how so many rappers seem to have terrible taste in music. Even the good artists are always dapping up whoever's popular at the moment. If anything they're probably less honest than critics since rappers have to worry about playing politics all the time.

It's impossible to criticize your peers without causing drama. I can't tell if this is just a rap thing or if it's common in other genres/media.

EDIT: You do have guys like Troy Ave calling popular acts "weirdos" but he gets so little respect that he might as well be an outsider. I suspect that part of the reason he does this is with the hope of gaining attention.
 
Tokubetsu

Tokubetsu

Member
PlayDat said:
It's always been funny to me how so many rappers seem to have terrible taste in music. Even the good artists are always dapping up whoever's popular at the moment. If anything they're probably less honest than critics since rappers have to worry about playing politics all the time.

It's impossible to criticize your peers without causing drama. I can't tell if this is just a rap thing or if it's common in other genres/media.
Click to expand...

Gotta eat and you never know when a feature might save your career.
 
P

PhoenixDark

Banned
There are many different ways to look at music critics. In general I tend to approach things from an "old head" perspective. You know that dude in the barbershop who always was exposing dudes to fly shit, always cosigning some new rapper or obscure rapper? I have a collection of people like that irl and online. If HRD says something is dope I might check it out, if thabiz says something is dope I might check it out...if they both say something is dope I'll drop what I'm doing and listen to it. Same with Esch.

I enjoy the Needle Drop reviews, often even when I disagree with him. I like glancing at Pitchfork reviews and figuring out what they're going to rate something before I click the review. My interesting in "professional" music criticism is moreso to see how projects are being perceived or to measure their views with mine. There really isn't some 5 Mic plateau from any outlet right now that makes me take pause or respect things. I don't think people today recognize how important a good Source review was back in the day, specifically a 5 Mic review. They took that shit seriously, and I don't see any sites or mags with similar focus. Needle Drop probably listens to an album once or twice before rating it, Pitchfork automatically gives 60% of "noteworthy" hip hop albums a 6.5-7.4 after the last track finishes, etc.

Imagine how heated Source mag writing rooms were in September 1993 when they gave Ready To Die a 4.5 instead of 5 mics. To me that's missing. I'd love to create some type of website or blog that took rating music seriously like that. But I probably don't have time for that shit.
 
E

Esch

Banned
lol wtf? of course you NEED critics. You all are at the mercy of tastemakers one way or another. Even if you don't like reading critics, you consume music from blogs or from message board recommendations or from whatever. Guess what, that's a form of critique too, simply by drawing attention to something. We're all influenced by pressures of opinion. If you're against the idea of a class of people that are in an 'authoritative' role, well, sorry. The average person doesn't have the time/attention span/expertise to analyze and choose for themselves and they need people to fulfill that role.

My personal thing with critics isn't their essential role or even their experience. It's simply that I have a weird world and music view, I guess, so I don't match up often. I wish more of them were specialists instead of generalists. You can't be authoritative on everything. But then again, I feel like there's been an overall trend in music (maybe even in general) since the internet began towards consolidation. Everyone's an expert on everything since information is so easy to obtain. But how much genuine digestion of that information is happening?

enzo_gt said:
Within GAF-Hop?

Nah, Coli emoticons have brought everyone together. Bless up, Esch.
Click to expand...
okay, so make another Esch
 
D

DominoKid

Member
honestly most noteworthy hip hop releases deserve about a 6.5-7.4 though.
it's just the nature of what most rappers are trying to accomplish.
- including a club banger that makes "real hip hop" fans cry foul
- a track for the women that most dudes wouldn't be caught dead listening to
- some "real" shit that more often than not comes off as corny.
all those song archetypes that just obviously betray the overall sound & concept of an album. when you shoot for all these fractured audiences it's no wonder that people think your shit is mediocre because thats how it sounds to the average person.

dreams & nightmares vs gkmc is a great example.

you can go w/ a sound/concept and weave those attempts into it to much greater critical results & overall quality
 
C

Cheddahz

Banned
DominoKid said:
honestly most noteworthy hip hop releases deserve about a 6.5-7.4 though.
it's just the nature of what most rappers are trying to accomplish.
- including a club banger that makes "real hip hop" fans cry foul
- a track for the women that most dudes wouldn't be caught dead listening to
- some "real" shit that more often than not comes off as corny.
all those song archetypes that just obviously betray the overall sound & concept of an album. when you shoot for all these fractured audiences it's no wonder that people think your shit is mediocre because thats how it sounds to the average person.

dreams & nightmares vs gkmc is a great example.

you can go w/ a sound/concept and weave those attempts into it to much greater critical results & overall quality
Click to expand...

cheddahz here, the internet's cheesiest nerd and today, i'm going to review this post

-if every "masterpiece" only deserves a 6 or 7, that's your damn opinion, just like every critic has their own damn opinion
-there's a reason why the album is always getting high scores
-whatever

i give this post 2 cheesesticks out of 10 cheddar cheese slices
 
E

Esch

Banned
DominoKid said:
honestly most noteworthy hip hop releases deserve about a 6.5-7.4 though.
it's just the nature of what most rappers are trying to accomplish.
- including a club banger that makes "real hip hop" fans cry foul
- a track for the women that most dudes wouldn't be caught dead listening to
- some "real" shit that more often than not comes off as corny.
all those song archetypes that just obviously betray the overall sound & concept of an album. when you shoot for all these fractured audiences it's no wonder that people think your shit is mediocre because thats how it sounds to the average person.

dreams & nightmares vs gkmc is a great example.

you can go w/ a sound/concept and weave those attempts into it to much greater critical results & overall quality
Click to expand...

Nebulous ideas of scoring aside (seriously, scoring is kinda bullshit) I agree that the genre suffers from formulaic ideas of what albums should be as far as song concepts. But it's been that way since the 90s, maybe even before tbh. But that's part of the flaw of the whole greatest rapper alive/i run shit paradigm. Everyone wants to have their come up top dawg album where they establish that they're that dude and that formula you just cited yields decent dividends as far as generating an audience goes.
 
P

PhoenixDark

Banned
DominoKid said:
honestly most noteworthy hip hop releases deserve about a 6.5-7.4 though.
it's just the nature of what most rappers are trying to accomplish.
- including a club banger that makes "real hip hop" fans cry foul
- a track for the women that most dudes wouldn't be caught dead listening to
- some "real" shit that more often than not comes off as corny.
all those song archetypes that just obviously betray the overall sound & concept of an album. when you shoot for all these fractured audiences it's no wonder that people think your shit is mediocre because thats how it sounds to the average person.

dreams & nightmares vs gkmc is a great example.

you can go w/ a sound/concept and weave those attempts into it to much greater critical results & overall quality
Click to expand...

and yet The Roots stay getting low 7s lol.
 
IrishNinja

IrishNinja

Member
Yeah don't agree with everything Dom said but there's no denying the formula; for me it was most evident in the G Unit era

- phuck u in the club bathroom (day 1 DLC remixes)
- 4thaladiez - I don't say bitch on this cut
- on my mindgrapes (introspective slash shit was rough bruh)

More modern variants include 4-5 tracks on coming up a la Juicy, except a fatherless focus on twitter naysayers instead of enjoying that mansion rented for the video
 
I

injurai

Banned
I think reviewers/critics serve an indirect purpose. They disseminate knowledge on releases. I couldn't care less about their arbitrary rankings, but you need some sort of media scaffolding. I know wouldn't have found many of my favorite works had it not been for that foundation being in place. Nor would many of the artists that I listen to find themselves with a sustainable career.

Personally though, I'm either fond of a song or not. If I like it, it defines my musical tastes and I end up passing that along to other people. If I'm familiar with someone else's tastes I enjoy finding out what it is they have been enjoying. I think impromptu criticizing is fine, but the definitive claim laying style of criticizing involves a lot of extra baggage. Really people just want to be exposed to new things.
 
E

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Cheddahz said:
was just about to post the new ot and my computer crashed on me

time to redo it!
Click to expand...
ibrh9LV2q9AECN.gif
 
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