Rick Ross - Mastermind ethered AGAIN by another review, this time by Needle Drop

[OG Talk]

we listening to cac hipster opinions now?

You listen to them everyday in this forum

a white boy is more sensible then most of you simple minded baboons

 

[SunZoo]

^^^^I'll go one step further and assert that most of these cats who wanna safeguard hip hop have next to no true working knowledge of the genre and are merely cats raised in a culture of poverty, not hip hop. They'll grant snakes like Puff Daddy a pass because he's black. That's insidious.

Basically. nikkas think they are Hip Hop because they have an Ipod.

As for Fantano I don't take ANY review with anything more than a grain of salt other than my own. But to say his opinion holds no weight because he's white or is a "hipster" is ignorant, he has probably listened to more rap albums, mainstream and other wise than 90 percent of the nikkas in this thread, myself included. I respect the round table environment of DEHH but the only thing that separates us from them is a camera, they are basically message board nikkas with a soap box.

Then again, that's his deal, he's a critic, i'm not.

@ that country analogy...especially when half of these clowns having such a strong reaction to someone's opinion they don't value in the first place only dikk ride mainstream product.

 

[mobbinfms]

U know damn well this boy ain't got no business reviewing no damn Ross album. He really ain't got no business reviewing ANY street music. That's like Boosie reviewing a Celine Dion album. Just because u have an opinion doesn't make u qualified to review this music

Can someone not in the mafia review a mafia movie?

 

[sun raw]

U know damn well this boy ain't got no business reviewing no damn Ross album. He really ain't got no business reviewing ANY street music. That's like Boosie reviewing a Celine Dion album. Just because u have an opinion doesn't make u qualified to review this music

i think it'd be pretty great if boosie reviewed a celine dion album, somebody make this happen

 

[WEKetchum]

Great point. But it's actually like saying only a member of the Mafia would be qualified to rate/critique the movie.

I think we're saying the same thing, just in different ways

 

[WEKetchum]

I agree he's good at expressing his points and what he likes. He would be excellent at writing essays for example... it doesn't mean that he's right.

Look how he doesn't like the last Arctic Monkeys record



But the album is rated at 81 overall on Metacritic.

http://www.metacritic.com/music/am/arctic-monkeys

No reviewers are always right, though. There are maybe 1-2 reviewers out there who I agree with on a consistent basis. But to me, a critic's responsibility is to give his honest, detailed critique, and to have a place of knowledge/understanding for that critique to come from. I think Fantano has those things.

 

[mobbinfms]

Let me ask you this: Take country music for example, the white folks who live, die, eat, sleep and breath country music. The white folks who live on farms, wear wranglers, go to rodeos, line dance at country western bars. The white folks who live on ranches, ride horses, cowboys, drive pick up trucks with American flags/ confederate flags and listen and support MFs like Kenny Chesney, Garth Brooks or Clint black, do you think those white folks would lend any credibilty if Sway, Charlemagne, Angela Yee, Envy, Vibe Magazine, Ebro, or any other black music critic or black reviewer of music?

Do u think that white fans of country music/bluegrass would waste a minute of their time to pay attention to the opinion of any of the black people i named? HELL NO THEY WOULDNT. They would laugh at the mere idea of one of those black people who dont come from or live that country shyt like they do. Angela Yee, Charlamage, Sway etc dont live that culture, they didnt grow up with that shyt, they are essentially outsiders, just like this white boy that gave this review. There is no way in hell that I would listen to this white dudes opinion on hip hop. Whether it be good or bad. his voice holds no weight with me.

But we have MFs in this thread runnin to this cats defense, when white folks who listen to country music, heavy metal, acid rock WOULD NEVER take a black persons review of the genre of music serious. Like i said, dude is disconnected like a MF. His opinion of rap doesnt mean shyt to me

This is getting into that territory where you have to live a certain lifestyle to have a worthwhile opinion on music/movies. Do you agree that your opinion on a mafia movie is worthless?

 

[mobbinfms]

I think we're saying the same thing, just in different ways

No doubt. I got that that was the point you were making. I just wanted to make it crystal clear for people.

 

[OG Talk]

Basically. nikkas think they are Hip Hop because they have an Ipod.

As for Fantano I don't take ANY review with anything more than a grain of salt other than my own. But to say his opinion holds no weight because he's white or is a "hipster" is ignorant, he has probably listened to more rap albums, mainstream and other wise than 90 percent of the nikkas in this thread, myself included. .

You can't just view art in a vacuum..Thats where these city slicker cac reviewers lose me most of the time...Even if you do digest it in high volume ....Empathy, enviornment and life experiences help mold your level of expertise...It's the same reason why me as a Southerner that grew up in the late 90's is less likely to take the opinions of a Black New Yorker that came up on 80's Golden Era rap seriously on Southern hood shyt...

I mean I can watch Goodfellas and think its the greatest film ever.. But a real Italian Mob guy that lived the life in Bensonhurst in the 70's might be able to point holes in it and point out all of the flaws...The authenticity and little nuance that I might not recognize might be glairing strengths or weaknesses to one of them..

Unless you were in a Jook Joint in Southern Tennessee back in '96 soaking up the enviornment and spending quality time with the people you might not be able to truely recognize the greatness of Kingpin Skinny Pimp... Your ear isn't as trained as you think it is.. Because you don't really know exactly what you're listening to, so its easy for you to just dismiss it..

This guy obviously isn't Ross' target audience...He's obviously not a fan (even of his hood approved classic work) So he's gonna attack him from a much more academic perspective and be more cold and detached than someone Ross is TRYING to reach....

I would much rather hear J. Prince's or Big Meech's opinion on a Ross album (or even my cousin that just came home from a 4 year bid).. Even though they wouldn't be able to articulate it with all the limousine liberal comic book geek hipster snark as an Anthony Fantano...At least I would know that THOSE are the type of people that Ross is trying to impress.. If he failed them, THEN I'd be interested in hearing why..But not from this cat....

 

[mobbinfms]

You can't just view art in a vacuum..Thats where these city slicker cac reviewers lose me most of the time...Even if you do digest it in high volume ....Empathy, enviornment and life experiences help mold your level of expertise...It's the same reason why me as a Southerner that grew up in the late 90's is less likely to take the opinions of a Black New Yorker that came up on 80's Golden Era rap seriously on Southern hood shyt...

I mean I can watch Goodfellas and think its the greatest film ever.. But a real Italian Mob guy that lived the life in Bensonhurst in the 70's might be able to point holes in it and point out all of the flaws...The authenticity and little nuance that I might not recognize might be glairing strengths or weaknesses to one of them..

Unless you were in a Jook Joint in Southern Tennessee back in '96 soaking up the enviornment and spending quality time with the people you might not be able to truely recognize the greatness of Kingpin Skinny Pimp... Your ear isn't as trained as you think it is.. Because you don't really know exactly what you're listening to, so its easy for you to just dismiss it..

This guy obviously isn't Ross' target audience...He's obviously not a fan (even of his hood approved classic work) So he's gonna attack him from a much more academic perspective and be more cold and detached than someone Ross is TRYING to reach....

I would much rather hear J. Prince's or Big Meech's opinion on a Ross album (or even my cousin that just came home from a 4 year bid).. Even though they wouldn't be able to articulate it with all the limousine liberal comic book geek hipster snark as an Anthony Fantano...At least I would know that THOSE are the type of people that Ross is trying to impress.. If he failed them, THEN I'd be interested in hearing why..But not from this cat....

This is well put, but it strips the music down to nothing more than authenticity. How is Big Meech any more qualified than Fantano to judge the technical complexity of the rhymes? The production? The creativity?

 

[WEKetchum]

You can't just view art in a vacuum..Thats where these city slicker cac reviewers lose me most of the time...Even if you do digest it in high volume ....Empathy, enviornment and life experiences help mold your level of expertise...It's the same reason why me as a Southerner that grew up in the late 90's is less likely to take the opinions of a Black New Yorker that came up on 80's Golden Era rap seriously on Southern hood shyt...

I mean I can watch Goodfellas and think its the greatest film ever.. But a real Italian Mob guy that lived the life in Bensonhurst in the 70's might be able to point holes in it and point out all of the flaws...The authenticity and little nuance that I might not recognize might be glairing strengths or weaknesses to one of them..

Unless you were in a Jook Joint in Southern Tennessee back in '96 soaking up the enviornment and spending quality time with the people you might not be able to truely recognize the greatness of Kingpin Skinny Pimp... Your ear isn't as trained as you think it is.. Because you don't really know exactly what you're listening to, so its easy for you to just dismiss it..

This guy obviously isn't Ross' target audience...He's obviously not a fan (even of his hood approved classic work) So he's gonna attack him from a much more academic perspective and be more cold and detached than someone Ross is TRYING to reach....

I would much rather hear J. Prince's or Big Meech's opinion on a Ross album (or even my cousin that just came home from a 4 year bid).. Even though they wouldn't be able to articulate it with all the limousine liberal comic book geek hipster snark as an Anthony Fantano...At least I would know that THOSE are the type of people that Ross is trying to impress.. If he failed them, THEN I'd be interested in hearing why..But not from this cat....

I think you've outlined the argument better than some other people in this thread, so . But I still don't completely agree.

I agree that empathy, environment and life experience can mold expertise. But musical knowledge can mold expertise, too. I don't think musical expertise should be ignored in situations like this, because that's still a legitimate audience. After all, we aren't grading Rick Ross' actual street activity - we're grading his music. I would value the opinions from the people you suggested, but I don't think that means that Anthony Fantano's opinion doesn't have any value as well. I think both have something valuable to contribute to the conversation. IMO, there's room from feedback from anyone who has some sort of substantial context behind their opinions - whether that context is also being in the streets, or if that context is from being a passionate/well-studied music fan. I'm only going to disqualify an opinion once I hear it and it actually sounds uninformed.

 

[OG Talk]

This is getting into that territory where you have to live a certain lifestyle to have a worthwhile opinion on music/movies. Do you agree that your opinion on a mafia movie is worthless?

I mentioned this exact point in what I just posted..My opinion isn't worthless.. But it's WORTH-LESS then a 65 year old Italian guy that was in the enviornment from which these screenwriters create a "good" mob film.. I'm not gonna be so arrogant that I'm gonna pretend I know more than he does..

Thats what these hipster reviewers do...I also honestly think music is so nuanced that you can't just be a general music reviewer (pop, metal, country, hip hop) You have to have specific experitize in a certain genre and a resume on how that expertize was formed..

It reminds me of these AM sports talk show hosts are jack of all trades but masters of none.. How you gonna be an expert on football, basketball, hockey, nascar, boxing AND soccer? Fukk outta here Thats how I view these "general music reviewers"...If I want to know about boxing then I go to Max Kellerman, if I wanna know MMA, I'll check Joe Rogan, if its basketball I'll look for Chad Lowe, if its hockey then I'll search out Barry Melrose...

You just can't say "I know sports" or " I know music" because chances are you are just a casual observer and are only scratching the surface...

 

[RTF]

No reviewers are always right, though. There are maybe 1-2 reviewers out there who I agree with on a consistent basis. But to me, a critic's responsibility is to give his honest, detailed critique, and to have a place of knowledge/understanding for that critique to come from. I think Fantano has those things.

I don't think he understands street hip hop though. A lot of hip hop fans don't really understand street music.

Some people can appreciate the visceral, raw aspect such as the dudes who review the stuff at Pitchfork. But it's a niche genre - it's not for everybody to enjoy. Because you like Kendrick, Kanye (Fantano doesn't like anything from him in the last 8 years) & Danny Brown doesn't mean you know what you're talking about when it comes to trap, drill or street based music.

 

[WEKetchum]

This is well put, but it strips the music down to nothing more than authenticity. How is Big Meech any more qualified than Fantano to judge the technical complexity of the rhymes? The production? The creativity?

Yup, exactly. If we were solely talking about how efficiently Rick Ross sells drugs, then only street dudes would be able to evaluate that. But this is music: beats, rhymes, creativity, musicality.

 

[OG Talk]

This is well put, but it strips the music down to nothing more than authenticity. How is Big Meech any more qualified than Fantano to judge the technical complexity of the rhymes? The production? The creativity?

What product has Fantano produced that involved complex rhymes or creative production? I'm not aware if his resume...