The Source And Pitchfork Both Give Bun B's New Album A "5"

In a victory for subjectivism, the rap music magazine The Source and mostly-rock music website Pitchfork have both awarded Texas rap legend Bun B’s new album Trill O.G. a quantitative rating of 5 in their record review sections. But the two ratings mean very different things, as a 5 is The Source’s highest rating, while Pitchfork’s scale goes up to 10.

A 5-mics rating in The Source was once (and maybe still?) a highly coveted certification of “classic” status from the publication known as “the hip-hop bible.” And Pitchfork is very important to white nerds. So which is it, who to trust? I don’t know. Though Bun B is a great favorite of mine, I haven’t gotten the album yet. It came out the same day last week as the new Arcade Fire album, and I try not to spend my entire salary (ha ha ha!) at iTunes. I do very much like the song “Let ’Em Know,” which was produced by DJ Premier. But that appreciation is not universal. Andrew Noz was highly critical of the song (and people who like it) in a thoughtful and nicely written post at the rap site Cocaine Blunts.

“This song will sit comfortably on a full length of adequate Bun B records where he rhymes ‘candy car’ with ‘sippin barre’ at least twice, and then it will be added to the recent discography of respectable but forgettable DJ Premier records with a scratched hook and the same drums he has been using since 1998.”

Noz also cited The Awl in his post, and recommended that it stop covering rap music, which hurt my feelings. But that’s okay. In another victory for subjectivism, Noz apparently thinks the Roots’ MC Black Thought is really great. I have always found Black Thought’s rhymes to be very, very boring. So, yes, people disagree. But I would never say that Noz should stop covering rap music. Or that he should not do posts about bear videos or write public apologies. In fact, I think he should!