Back in high school, I remember flipping through the pages of the Source, skipping right to the reviews, only to go to the store and spend my hard-saved lunch money on albums they recommended only to be, more often than not, disappointed. At only $2 a day, the hunger pains I had throughout my school day did not equal the aural bliss I would get maybe once a month from buying a dope album.
Things are different in the downloading age, if somebody recommends an album, you boot up your favorite file-sharing program, download, and listen. If you like the album, you will (hopefully) buy it. The risk is minimized.
A review is just an opinion that you either you do or don’t agree with. It is important to get comfortable with your reviewer or publication, maybe find one that has similar tastes as yours, but still take each review with a grain of salt.
The content of the review is especially important. I find that, many times, most people just look at the hard line rating and make a decision based upon, “oh this got four mics, it must be hot!” You miss a lot of context by doing so, and in the process may miss out on a dope album. At the very least, you should read the last paragraph of the review, which should be a summary of the reviewer’s opinion. A good review should describe enough aspects of the album so that, even if it is a bad review, maybe it’d be something that you’d like to listen to.
Before we get into actual sites, I want to say that I know that I am not without fault. A little while ago, a listener of the podcast chastised me for recommending Will.I.Am’s Songs About Girls. While I still stand by my assertion that it is a listenable album, in that you can listen and say there are no real skippable songs on the LP, in reality there are only two songs that get constant repeat on my ipod to this day, “She’s a Star,” and “Heartbreaker.”
Okay, so let’s take a look:
Hiphopsite.com – I have been a reader of Hiphopsite since 1998. I remember the excitement I had whenever they would update their new joints section and got to hear new joints from the likes of Necro, Louis Logic, and Planet Asia. Nowadays, Hiphopsite pales in comparison to what it used to be, they no longer sell vinyl or cd’s, the new joints section is long gone, and their reviews are absolutely suspect. Take a look at this 5-star classic (@@@@@) review of the Nas – Untitled album. Doesn’t that make you want to chuckle? SERIOUSLY??!
Pitchfork – This was the first site I checked out when I decided I wanted to branch out and listen to music other than rap. The results were disastrous, I ended up listening to trash by the likes of Air France and No Age. I don’t agree with their hip hop album reviews, either. Take this review of T.I.’s the Paper Trail as prime evidence, or this incredibly low rating for the solid N.E.R.D. Seeing Sounds album. Furthermore, the reviews tend to come late. The reviews come weeks even months after the albums are released, by that time you may have already made the decision to buy the album and it is too late. Oh, and good look finding reviews for albums that might not fit into the “hipster dynamic,” reviews for albums like Blu and Exile’s Below the Heavens or even Nas’ Untitled are nowhere to be found.
Allhiphop – I used to love allhiphop, but for some reason stopped checking for it when I moved to the RSS Reader. Allhiphop has consistent reviews for albums that you may not have even heard of. Oftentimes these albums fit the gangster aesthetic. There aren’t too many underground reviews, but check them out, if you are a fan of the genre. They even have reviews of mixtapes.
Allmusic – I am not too familiar with this site, but I keep hearing good things. This favorable review of Louis Logic and J.J. Browns Misery Loves Comedy puts them as okay in my book!
Hiphopinfinity (R.I.P.) – I’m giving this site a brief mention because this was the first site to put me onto all of that weird/spacey/canadian/avante-garde rap that was booming in the early 00′s. Jay Seagraves put me onto a lot of trash, but I have to give credit to this site for putting me onto groups like Moka Only and Prozac Turner (with my man Z’s help, of course).
So what was the point of this post? Well, I hope to be reviewing an album weekly on this here site in the very near future. The reviews will most likely be in the of Byron Crawford’s blog, song by song basis with an overall opinion at the end.
Have I missed any sites that you check on a regular basis? Leave a comment, or drop me a line (email is on the right) and let me know!
