Album Rating: 4.5

Really? Lmfao then that makes Bryce Savage even stupider for just randomly including "slowed + reverb" versions of like 8 tracks at the end of his (actually awful, btw) "BookTok: The Album" bc if he isn't even getting paid for those???

Album Rating: 3.5

well, at least thats the old school contracts. streaming royalties are a different ball park that this individual would probably be shooting for

Album Rating: 4.5

Aye, yeah Savage's case feels super blatant. "Slowed + Reverb" is such a weird ass trend lolol, as for old school it's often that a lot of the ones I've heard have tracks that don't feel as essential as the big hitters and an album of just the big hitters would be an easy 5. All of the songs matter to me and maybe its unrealistic but I'd like at least 50% of the songs on any album I've 5'd to also be 5 on the track ratings lol (sometimes I will literally determine my rating based on adding up the tracks and dividing it up)

Album Rating: 3.5

yeah i can imagine something titled that and having that structure to be incredibly vapid and disingenuous in its ethos

Album Rating: 4.5

can’t promise I’ll listen to every one hawks but will check ur list, and drifter I’ll give those three a shot. thank you gentlemen

Album Rating: 4.5

it's definitely one of the most blatant cases of streaming bait ever. And tbh the 40 minutes I sat through were painful enough I can't imagine slowing the tracks down 10% and adding reverb helps

Album Rating: 3.7

Wildcard bro theres 100 albums I wouldn't expect you to jam them all hahahaha.

Album Rating: 4.5

“complaining about album length is one of the the biggest 'skill issues' you can have about hip hop. that and skits. if you cant get with it the genre might not be for you.”





You’re a gatekeeping fuckwit.

Album Rating: 3.5

You could, y'know, listen to hip hop regardless of what someone else said. I agree with Drift that these are all aspects that come with the genre, but I do believe that a lot of older records are somewhat bloated too, especially in retrospect, given how much we're exposed to more short form content in general and that's evolved a shorter collective attention span. Not to mention I already have ADHD lol. When people actually bought CDs and went home to sit down and listen to the shit, I feel like there was a certain expectation to give people a lot of bang for their buck, with no anticipation of the way streaming is now and having an infinite sea of different music all vying for a listener's time and attention. I wouldn't change it though. I feel that context is important when digging into the classics and rounding out your understanding of the genre as a whole. The skits in albums from groups like Outkast give the records even more character and personality, and the best albums make it all worth it. I'd even welcome skits in newer albums if they were any good, but a lot of newer rappers are probably too uncreative to script one that doesn't suck.

Album Rating: 4.0

Streaming bait to me is more like… every song is 1 minute long

Album Rating: 3.5

yeah the real streaming bait is those "study / focus" playlists on all the streaming apps. those ambient piano / lo-fi hip hop tracks that are never longer than 1:15 that are 100% composed and owned by the streaming services despite being given "real" artist names (and at this point probably all ai generated)

Album Rating: 4.8

Eh, I think it's fair to call out that hip-hop in particular has an issue with streaming bait. Most of the artists that come up have a short shelf life of popularity, so they take advantage by blowing out the tracklist to be 18+ songs. You just don't see this to nearly the same degree in other genres, not even pop.



Study/focus playlists are 1000% outright gaming the system for slop with a good deal of them being ai-generated, but I honestly don't really consider that realm to be "real" music altogether lol

Album Rating: 3.5

i don't necessarily disagree with that. was just thinking yesterday about how both jay-z and drake both dropped double albums directly after getting eviscerated in rap beefs to maintain their "dominance" and sell more records than they ever had up to that point. also biggie making a double album likely in response to pac making a double album. or kanye and 50 cent's first week battle.



i don't think "streaming bait" is really the correct phrase. think moreso commercially leaning rappers just outwardly care about their record sales more than anyone else. they brag about it in their music and pretty universally use it as a measuring stick against their peers (for right or wrong) to the point where their reputation almost hinges on it. all plays into the competitive nature of the genre.

Album Rating: 3.5

Complaining about length in itself is kinda wild to me, if it's short you'll want more but if it's long you just have more

More time to digest it and peel back it's layers. Saying there's only 10-25 worthwhile albums that are an hour long is mind boggling to me.



I agree if it's long and the quality isn't there throughout though. That's just padding.

Album Rating: 4.8

I wouldn't put the number nearly that low, but you better have a damn good reason why an album is more than 50 minutes. It becomes a lot harder to justify the runtime around that mark for me, but it's not impossible

Album Rating: 4.5

[2]

I mean, I’ve said it already but even just looking at Kendrick you see this. TPAB is perfect. Totally fine with how long that record is. Mr Morale did not need to be *longer*.

Album Rating: 3.5

We're not talking bull of heaven here, how many of the top rated albums here go over that? Especially if they're not double albums. Just kind of a wild take but again I reiterate it obviously has to earn the length. I agree with that. Good music is good music.



Mr morale is a double album too. TPaB isnt

Album Rating: 4.5

And this is easy and he’s just catching strays from everyone but look at drake. How many of his dumbass albums are ridiculously fucking long for absolutely no reason?

Album Rating: 4.8

Good music is good music, but there is something to be said about having some boundaries on a particular creative piece.



For example, if you stacked every great Blink-182 song on top of each other and released it as a single album you'd cannabalize the effectiveness of the songs the deeper in the tracklist you go, even if the songs themselves are excellent on an individual level.

Album Rating: 3.5

Isn't the greatest hits album one of blinks most beloved albums though? Couldn't you say something like brat where the point of the album is excess and fast paced bangers but still maintaining the identity of each song throughout the album? I think it really just comes down to album crafting and the art being kind of lost in the streaming age.



I disagree with Mr. Morales length too, the only track I could see taking away is silent hill.