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Writing Reviews - 11.30.2008
You know, this is my first gig as a review writer. It's been a fun little journey and I think through my experience here I've learned a few things. I thought I might share them with everyone.
1) Everyone that reads the rap reviews in the Music Zone appears to HATE everyTHING and everyONE that's currently on the radio. People are calling Lil Wayne the most over-rated, pop, trash artist in the game. The funny thing is that Wayne could buy and sell every single commenter on the Music Zone time and time again. The other things is... if Wayne was so over-rated and trash, why would EVERYONE want to have him on a track? Clearly he brings something to the table, but I guess he wouldn't be as big without a bunch of ignorant, jealous haters.
2)The commenters on this site will actively TRY to find you saying wrong shit. If you say "1999" when you should've said "2000", they will literally flame you and discredit EVERYTHING in your ENTIRE REVIEW regardless of the fact that it all makes sense.
3) The commenters on this site don't care about logic. Let's take my review of Ludacris' Theater of the Mind for example. You'll notice that there's a fanboy on there downing me and basically saying that my review is going to make Luda's CD not sell. Really?! How is it that lil' ol' me is going to ruin Ludacris' career? It's impossible for MY REVIEW to ruin his sales considering I never used to write reviews and he was just fine. Secondly, you'll notice someone actually says that "...guest appearances and beats should never, ever bring down an album review. Sorry." ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! Let's go to the anatomy of a CD for a reviewer:
The CD itself is like our body. One work, but many parts:
Part 1 - The beats/music. This MUST be good for the CD to get above a 5. If the beats and the music suck, then it's going to be really hard to get behind the lyrics regardless of who the aritst is.
Part 2 - The lyrics. This MUST be good for the CD to get above a 8. If the music and the lyrics match and bang good an hard together, then the CD can find itself with an 8 - 9. The music and lyrics aren't enough to put a CD to a 10, but as you can see, the two combined account for 90% of the rating.
Part 3 - Extra content. I don't mean this like DVD extras, I mean a couple of things. Many of the CDs these days have little extras such as skits, guest appearances/collaborators, etc. These things account for that final 10% to bring a CD to a 10. If there's a CD with JUST the artist and no collabs and no skits, then it has to be extra good in the lyrics and music department to make the 10.
The 10 is a rare occurence like a solar eclipse. In order to give a CD a 10, it has to be something that I would want 3 copies of; 1 for home, 1 for the car, and 1 on my digital device of choice.
Anyway... this has been fun, and I plan on continuing to have fun doing this, and I'm not really worried about what the commenters have to say. It's a side-gig and I speak as truthfully as possible. The fact is, giving Ludacris a 5.5 rating KILLED me because I'm a big fan. The truth of the matter is that when you review things, you have to put your fanboy or fangirl status on hold and be as objective as possible.
Get it together commenters. :-P
Enjoy my Akon - Freedom review :) |
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