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Pitchfork's rap album reviews are adjusted for political correctness

via pitchfork.com

You can never be sure if a rap album that receives a 7.2 from Pitchfork is genuinely kinda mediocre, or if it's really an 8.2 that was adjusted down a point (i.e. ten percentage points) because the guy who reviewed it is a magine activist.

Case in point, this bit from today's review of Action Bronson's Rare Chandeliers by Jordan Sargent (the same guy who did the Rap Genius post on Gawker):

There has always been a nastiness to Bronson-- especially towards women-- and that unfortunately gets played up on Rare Chandeliers, an album that is both darker and more stately in tone. The Bronson here is one who lurks in shadows, alleys, and cigar lounges and possesses little of the awareness of others displayed on Blue Chips joints like "Hookers at the Point" or "Thug Love Story 2012". The line between jokester and asshole is a blurry one, and on a track like "Demolition Man", you get the sense that maybe Bronson is starting to believe his own illusion.

What if I could give a rat's if a rapper is "nasty?" No Boutros. That's the whole point of rap music, right?

I listened to Bronson's verse on this song, and I couldn't even figure out what was wrong with it. It's hardly any different from any number of other Action Bronson verses - which is the real problem with Action Bronson at this point.

I checked Rap Genius, the authority on rap music, and it didn't have shit on why this song is so horrible. It explains that the part about the green M&Ms in his dressing room is a reference to Van Halen's legendary tour rider. You don't say? (It doesn't even get into the actual reasoning behind the seemingly bizarre request.) Also, when Action Bronson says he wants a girl with a black chick's body and an Asian chick's face, that means he prefers girls who are half black and half Asian...

Action Bronson has a verified Rap Genius account, but I guess he hasn't gotten around to explaining his latest opus. As if they couldn't just apply the same explanations from Blue Chips, or whatever he's explained at this point. Instead, they've copied and pasted Action Bronson's comments on the song from one of those damn Complex slideshows. Unlike the many lyrics they wantonly copied and pasted from OHHLA, it does link back to Complex. How come they can't link to OHHLA on all of the pages where that's where they copied and pasted the lyrics from? Is it because Complex owns the copyright to its text, whereas OHHLA doesn't own copyright to their lyrics, and so they aren't obligated to legally? Or would it be bad for their SEO? They do link to 25 other blogs on a page called "The Rap Genius Blog Souljas."

Since Noz or someone called Rap Genius out for copying and pasting a lot of their lyrics from OHHLA, Rap Genius co-founder Mahbod Moghadam has spoken out about what a profound influence OHHLA was on his upbringing. It's what he used to look up rap lyrics as a kid, supposedly. I guess it wasn't that much of an influence.

Previously: Does dead prez's "Dirty White Girl" have anything to do with actual white chicks?