Pitchfork Reviews "Magna Carta....Holy Grail"

[chemicalsword]

not mad at this review....

 

[phillycavsfan]

FIrst off, comparing Pitchfork reviews is a pointless venture. Reviews are done by different writers. The Blueprint, Yeezus, and MCHG reviews were done by three different writers, and since there's no objective standard on how to critique music, you're gonna get different viewpoints.

That said, I thought the MCHG was pretty spot-on.

Between his newborn daughter, budding sports agency, political controversies, and his equally famous wife, Magna Carta has the most personal material to work with since The Black Album. But the songs rarely go deep. On “Picasso Baby”, Jay boasts “House like the Louvre or the Tate Modern/ Because I be goin’ ape at the auction.” I doubt he meant it to be “Poppin’ Tags” for the Sotheby’s set-- a vulgar display of net worth that puts him in the tax bracket of shipping magnates and NBA owners-- but it comes across as a context and appraisal-free recitation of famous names, a Winner’s History of Modern Art.

But Jay also manifests a worst case scenario for “dad-rap.” Twelve albums in, he’s still Muhammad Ali, he’s Michael Jackson, he’s Michael Jordan, he’s Frank Sinatra-- the latter is the most deflating comparison, if only because Jay-Z is using him as a prop for yet another lyric about how he did it “my way.” As tedious as these hoary references can be, it's worse when Magna Carta dabbles in contemporary name-drops and Jay-Z becomes Jay Leno-- mentions of Homeland, Instagram, Scott Boras, and Miley Cyrus’ twerkin’ incident bomb like failed monologue jokes between idle chatter.

That last line is 110% fact.

 

[MIAlien]

So how do you know if someone has a sufficient appreciation and understanding of the culture and music?

That's not very difficult to figure out. These websites/magazines should hire people that have covered Hip Hop extensively throughout their careers. It doesn't make sense to have people who write reviews for Metal and Punk Rock most of the time writing reviews of rap albums. Pitchfork seriously used the same guy that reviewed Empire of The Sun's latest album to review Life is Good. These websites/magazines need a staff of writers that cover each genre exclusively. Oh, and hire more black people…

 

[JerseyBoy23]

That's not very difficult to figure out. These websites/magazines should hire people that have covered Hip Hop extensively throughout their careers. It doesn't make sense to have people who write reviews for Metal and Punk Rock most of the time writing reviews of rap albums. Pitchfork seriously used the same guy that reviewed Empire of The Sun's latest album to review Life is Good. These websites/magazines need a staff of writers that cover each genre exclusively. Oh, and hire more black people…

Honestly it's a catch-22. Just like the Grammys if Pitchfork and Rolling Stone didn't review hip-hop along with pop and rock albums people would complain about them ignoring the culture.

Now the ironic thing about the hire more black people thing is the fact that XXL, Source, and Complex all have staffs filled with white people so do they not count either?

 

[NigerianDonDada]

5.8

 

[phillycavsfan]

That's not very difficult to figure out. These websites/magazines should hire people that have covered Hip Hop extensively throughout their careers. It doesn't make sense to have people who write reviews for Metal and Punk Rock most of the time writing reviews of rap albums. Pitchfork seriously used the same guy that reviewed Empire of The Sun's latest album to review Life is Good. These websites/magazines need a staff of writers that cover each genre exclusively. Oh, and hire more black people…

The problem is that the people who "know hip-hop" aren't that good as writers.

 

[K.O.N.Y]

Anybody cosigning this is a clown. Pitchfork needs to get oudda here with that fake ass pseudo-intellectual bullsht they be trying to pull. Review was trash, this album is easily 7.5 or better

 

[mozichrome]

i mean i read reviews for movies, video games
i dont put too much stock in music ones tho

 

[Rarely-Wrong Liggins]

I don't feel how 50% of this and other reviews talk about his money and the Samsung deal.

It's fair game when someone praises Jay though.

 

[George Gooney]

The rating was harsh (especially when compared to Yeezus) but the review was spot on...



Him an Beyonce been together for 10 years and he still treats her as nothing more than a status symbol in his music...She's no different than a Hublot or Basquiat to him on his albums...I'm not saying he doesn't love her and they don't have a great complex relationship but he does a poor job expressing that in his music..

Artists like Kanye, Common, Nas, DMX, Pac, Ghost and Eminem are able to do a much better job at this...They paint pictures of love, hate, passion, jealousy and desire...

It's almost like he views his wife the same way us fans do.. Just a piece of hot azz talented arm candy...

It's sad because I think that's the biggest reason for him marrying her.

 

[Harry B]

It's fair game when someone praises Jay though.

What do you mean?

If you wanna talk endorsements and his money, talk endorsements and his money, Negatively or positively.

If you are reviewing his music, you review his music? Negatively or positively.

It's not like I'll say Jordan is one of the shyttiest players of all time cause the Charlotte Bobcats had the shyttest record of all time.

 

[neph27]

CAN SOMEONE WHO DISAGREES WITH THE RATING OF THE ALBUM PLEASE ATTEMPT TO REFUTE THE CLAIMS MADE IN THE REVIEW

RATHER THEN THE SAME "FUKK PITCHFORK fukk CACS fukk YEEZUS fukk THEIR RATING OF ALBUM X"

NONE OF THAT ALL HAS TO DO WITH THE JAY ALBUM BEING AN INSTANT COASTER CLASSIC

 

[OnlyInCalifornia]

There is two sure fire angles as a reviewer from pitch fork and you can see it with Yeezus/MCHG...

Either the album is weird and you try to flex your im-so-cutting-edge muscle in text overrating an album just to sound different. The hipster blood forces people to be into things they don't really like just because its different.

OR

You find an album most people are into from a popular artist and show your im-so-above-this-its-not-cutting-edge hand that you HAVE to shyt on albums like Jayz's. The hipster blood forces anything liked by more than 50 people all at once as bad.

 

[Harry B]

CAN SOMEONE WHO DISAGREES WITH THE RATING OF THE ALBUM PLEASE ATTEMPT TO REFUTE THE CLAIMS MADE IN THE REVIEW

RATHER THEN THE SAME "FUKK PITCHFORK fukk CACS fukk YEEZUS fukk THEIR RATING OF ALBUM X"

NONE OF THAT ALL HAS TO DO WITH THE JAY ALBUM BEING AN INSTANT COASTER CLASSIC

1. 50% of the review has nothing to do with the album.
The philosophy of the magazine being anti-mainstream, however I'm not surprised that they are mad about the super commercial moves Hov made surrounding this album.

2. Just random stupid things like "Mike Will only getting 1 minute is elitism".
One about a little unknown girl getting 5 minutes. And the other 1 minute song being produced by Timbo and Swizz Beats.

3. Also shytting on the only references that weren't ass?
The Instagram one, the Miley one and Homeland.

4. He seems a bit mad about the whole process of the album, which is specially evident in where he says that Jay-z samples to show people that he is rich enough to sample. But every other rapper, samples cause it's dope music? And for the first 16 albums he sampled cause it made good music? But not this time..

5. No mentions of Jay-z's actual rapping skills, since Jay-z is known and loved for his rapping skills, one could expect to hear a mention or two about it. And no mention of how dope the production was, given the producers that would be something worth mentioning as well. I respect pitchfork, they usually see the bigger picture. They look at lyrics, production and all that. They might be the only magazine to call out dumb-smart "conscious hiphop" and show love to entertainment. Ian Cohen being the boss, I expected a better review.

That was what I found wrong with the review.

As far as the score goes 3 mics I can't be mad at that, I give it 4.. Most people seem to be somewhere in between. Non-hiphop heads leaning towards 3 and hiphop heads leaning towards 4. Allhiphop, HiphopDx gave it 4 mics, Pitchfork and UK-newspapers gave it 3 mics. Vibe and Complex called it dope, Spin called it wack.

 

[phillycavsfan]

1. 50% of the review has nothing to do with the album

2. Just random stupid things like "Mike Will only getting 1 minute is elitism".
One about a little unknown girl getting 5 minutes. And the other 1 minute song being produced by Timbo and Swizz Beats.

3. Also shytting on the only references that weren't ass?
The Instagram one, the Miley one and Homeland.

4. He seems a bit mad about the whole process of the album, which is specially evident in where he says that Jay-z samples to show people that he is rich enough to sample. But every other rapper, samples cause it's dope music? And for the first 16 albums he sampled cause it made good music? But not this time..

5. No mentions of Jay-z's actual rapping skills, given that Jay-z is known and loved for his rapping skills, one could expect to hear a mention or two about it.

That was what I found wrong with the review.

As far as the score goes 3 mics I can't be mad at that, I give it 4.. Most people seem to be somewhere in between. Non-hiphop heads leaning towards 3 and hiphop heads leaning towards 4. Allhiphop, HiphopDx gave it 4 mics, Pitchfork and UK-newspapers gave it 3 mics. Vibe and Complex called it dope, Spin called it wack.

Complex being called "hip-hop heads". They're dikkriders, pure and simple. Same with Vibe.

They did mention Jay's skill, but they said (and rightfully so) he's not rapping about anything substantial aside from a couple songs. And they Jay sampled to show he's "worldly", but in reality the pop culture references have become kinda tedious.

That Smells Like Teen Spirit interpolation was horrific though. I don't know what Jay and JT were thinking with that one.