The Thread Where We List The People Who Put Kanye As Their Token Rap Album on an indiecentric top 10 2004 list

http://popmatters.com/music/best2004/041228-warner.shtml

The Killers, Hot Fuss
Elvis Costello & the Imposters, Delivery Man
The Libertines, The Libertines
The Gang of Four, A Brief History of the Twentieth Century
Hope of the States, The Lost Riots
Amy Winehouse, Frank
Kanye West, The College Drop Out
Interpol, Antics
Patti Smith, Trampin'
Divine Comedy, Absent Friends

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

"look at me i am in a funny bear suit (skit)"
"ouch, my jaw hurts"
"i r dumb (skit)"
"slow jamz"
"college girls be fat (skit)"
"all falls down"
"all i got at college was this backpack (skit)"
"jesus walks"
"i was robbed at various award shows" (new bonus diss skit)

ames Blount, your votes have been recorded.

Your Pazz & Jop albums ballot was submitted as follows:

1. - Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats - Essay (25 points)
2. Dizzee Rascal - Showtime - Matador (15 points)
3. - DFA Compilation #2 - DFA (13 points)
4. Big $ Rich - Horse of a Different Color - Warner Bros. (12 points)
5. - Run The Road - 679 (7 points)
6. The Hold Steady - Almost Killed Me - French Kiss (7 points)
7. Mia/Diplo - Piracy Funds Terrorism Vol. 1 - Hollertronix (6 points)
8. Les Savy Fav - Inches - French Kiss (5 points)
9. Devin the Dude - To Tha X-Treme - Rap-A-Lot (5 points)
10. Infinite Livez - Bush Meat - Big Dada (5 points)

Your Pazz & Jop singles ballot has been recorded as follows:

1. Mia - ""Galang"" - Showbiz
2. Boredoms - ""Seadrum""
3. Gretchen Wilson - ""Redneck Woman"" - Epic
4. Cécile - ""Hot Like We"" - Greensleeves
5. Britney Spears - ""Toxic"" - Jive
6. LCD Soundsystem - ""Yeah (Stupid Version)"" - DFA
7. Jason Forrest - ""Spectacle to Refute All Judgments"" - Sonig
8. Mya featuring Chingy - ""Fallen (Zone 4 Remix)"" - Interscope
9. Alicia Keys - ""You Don't Know My Name"" - J-Records
10. Ciara featuring Missy Elliot - ""1, 2 Step"" - La Face

Gregory Conner, Tufts Observer

http://www.tuftsobserver.org/arts/20041210/top_10_albums_of_2004.html

Brian Wilson—SMILE: What can I say about SMILE that hasn’t been said?

Arcade Fire—Funeral: Ah, PitchforkMedia.com. At times I find it disturbing that I have a strong relationship with a website...

Interpol—Antics

Wilco—A Ghost is Born: Thirteen minutes of something that sounds like a room full of refrigerators! What was Wilco thinking!?

Loretta Lynn—Van Lear Rose: To be honest, I probably would have never picked this record up if it wasn’t for Jack White...

Green Day—American Idiot: This was the surprise of 2004 for me.

Franz Ferdinand—Franz Ferdinand: This album was even better before I heard “Take Me Out” so many times I became nauseous at the sound of its first guitar flourish.

Iron and Wine—Our Endless Numbered Days: Singer-songwriters may have the hardest job in music. It is up to only them whether they succeed or fail; they have no band to pick up the slack or superstar producer to save them with a new beat.

Kanye West—College Dropout: The rap album of the year.

The Hives—Tyrannosaurus Hives

Kanye West—College Dropout: The rap album of the year.

vs

Loretta Lynn—Van Lear Rose: To be honest, I probably would have never picked this record up if it wasn’t for Jack White...

the word "college" is in the title. He uses his full name. It's laudibly gangsta-free. It has a hefty promotional budget. Release the same album as Kay-Way's Ballz Up In Dat II: The Unchallenged Greatest with a picture of Kay-Way holding a shotgun and see if it does as well critically.

(some of my best friends are kanye fans. I kinda like "All Falls Down" and "Workout Plan" - can't stand the chipmunk hits)

Bingo. Hey Outkast was my number #3 last year! And I like the sloppy-ass Prince-rip disc more than the rap one!

ah, but the non-andre hippity-hop was present in my singles list ("Get Low" and "Faint") and album list (northern state)

i don't know a single country fan who would say the same of loretta's album.

One my best friends in town would say the same thing (so will Xgau!).

I wonder how many people who love hiphop would also find valuable an 'indiecentric' 2004 top 10 list

hey, I voted for Devin AND Kanye! where's my laudibly non-gangsta prize?

http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~mbarret1/Graphics/berkely03/gangsta.jpg

(xp stevie: I really dreaded this, y'know)

-- What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatri...), December 30th, 2004.

Nate is pretty OTM, especially there. and Anthony, are you actually using that asshole Byron Crawford to back up your point?

ANYway - other than that Al, I agree w/ you and Nate, and I think the Kanye album is pretty damn great on the whole - and no, many of the album tracks are just as strong as the singles ("we don't care," "family business" "Two Words" etc.)

Moving on:

yeah the kanye rhetoric is quite possible by far the most fucking absurd i've seen around any hip-hop record ever, outdoing speakerboxx/thelovebelow, outdoing lauryn, outdoing 16 years of 'nation of millions' hyberbole even maybe (ok maybe not that).

Huh? So Rocafella convinced a bunch of corny rock fans that they were listening to backpacker rap bcuz kanye doesn't talk about guns. The "Not since de la soul and public enemy!" rhetoric is stupid, but it always is - this is just another of countless examples.

all the rockcrits feeling icky about getting gop cooties from country and then rallying around fucking "jesus walks" is fucking insane.

Maybe ILM/the blogosphere is somewhat to the left of the critical mainstream but shit - the country poseurism that I sense - and I want to make it clear I'm not calling anyone out, it is just highly suspicious when suddenly everyone jumps on the mainstream-country-is-so-great bandwagon when chuck eddy mentions how good big and rich are - seems pretty fucking pervasive around here. In fact, I'd say Big & Rich would be a much BETTER example of Outkast for the 2k4 than Kanye is - and I like that Big and Rich album more than SB/LB (SB was the better half, by the way).

anyone wondering about how christianity's been used to 'tame' the black man in america for over three hundred years need only glance at a couple of the hundred or so "jesus walks" hosannahs - "dont be angry / dont be fucking / just pray and pray again": ugh. i guarantee you if rove thought bushco had a real shot at the black vote or hadn't (astutely) decided "fuck the blacks, lets try to get the hispanic vote" then "jesus walks" woulda been the "born in the usa" of 1984. plus kanye's a shitty rapper.

I disagree w/ practically all of this. And your narrative of the history of black christianity that neglects to give any agency to african americans is pretty disturbing too.