The K-Pop dig was funny but the random Morgan Wallen mention is just bait-y and an attempt to subtly politicize the release of Utopia, which P4K also constantly does with their music. They feel some perverse obligation to tie music criticism into sociological a***ysis that is furthermore always levied through the most base, undercooked, derivative liberal lens you can cough up.

The lack of "Texas roots" does not inherently make the music bad. Lil Uzi Vert doesn't sound like he's from Philly, Death Grips aren't making G-Funk, M.I.A. isn't doing Grime, Kanye isn't always rapping over soul beats or house rhythms, 50 Cent wasn't making grimey boom bap. It's just a tired and mindless dig

And newsflash, Kanye is better than Travis. Wow, what a surprise!

Like the guy who wrote the review in OP lol

Travis Scott in 2023 is about as gentrified as rap gets anyway, he has no unique POV and his Houston roots have been watered down to the point where they're barely present anymore. Making it about race is just deflection

Alphonse will answer for his crimes one day We shouldn’t get mad, it’s up to God now

God's Country we at war

Calling Travis gentrified is just racist

Love how there’s always like a good 2 days of people enjoying the album and actually talking about the music and then it’s multiple weeks of the most tired disingenuous dialogues and narratives over and over so people can argue over something

Okay interesting point cool

no reason for one person opinion to have this at 18 pages

Highly doubt it critics are just idiots at this point

Lamest nigga in journalism

It's true but it happens more quickly when the album itself isn't that interesting

turning around an album review in 72 hours doesn't seem particularly fair

Nah it happens with every album, especially mainstream ones. Alphonse is a bait/interaction generator for P4K and he’s doing his job here

See I thought the Wallen mention was more because he's super popular, I didn't think about the politics. Actually the review seemed less overtly political than the average pitchfork (or other) review. Like, there's a lot of Kanye praise in the review, and he's the boogeyman for the liberal lens atm.

It doesn't make it bad no, but the roots criticsn does add further context to the common criticism of Trav. Who actually is the man behind the aesthetics?

Gentrification = the process whereby the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in, improving housing, and attracting new businesses, typically displacing current inhabitants in the process.

He's not importing white culture to hip hop nor eroding the genre economically. Therefore, not gentrifying

Atp I’m convinced Alphonse and the whole pitchfork and melon are agents of a secret government organization working to gradually eradicaticate hip-hop culture via defamation

Like I ain't saying Alphonse deserves a Pulitzer but he's better than most of his peers. The bar is on the floor, I guess

Why does there have to be a man behind the aesthetics? Is there a man behind "Pump Up the Jam"? "What Time Is Love"? "All My Chains"? A story? Like come on.

accurate tbh

he's basically Shawn Cee tier

Hes really not though. His writing is so amateurish and his attempts at trying to be funny in reviews is always grating

Doesn't have to be a story, but I think since he's one of the premiere blockbuster album artists atm, it's a fair question to ask. We like to connect with our megastars, always been like that

feel like this is the most disrespectful thing you could say abt a music journalist

Deeply annoying that now a lot of valid criticisms of the album (the difference between a standard guest verse and actual standout moments for ex.) are now going to get lumped into this headass’s ad hominems

Granted I liked the album generally, but nuance should be a part of the review cycle and this was an annoyingly predictable move from pitchfork

That's a byproduct of commodity fetishism, not anything incumbent to assessing the quality of the music as music, nor the artistry behind it.