Tuesday March 19, 2024
RapReviews.com

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

 
I'd like to write for RapReviews; how can I be down?
I notice you didn't review so-and-so's album - why not?
Is RapReviews.com a "professional" website?
You gave Tupac/Nas/Jay-Z a 6; are you INSANE?!
Will you do a 'Back to the Lab' feature on this album?
Who gave you f#%#ers the right to criticize anyone?
If your question is not covered by this FAQ please e-mail the webmaster as a last resort.

I'd like to write for RapReviews; how can I be down?

Thanks for your interest in joining the staff of RapReviews.com. Prospective writers should contact jostmatt@bluewin.ch for further information. top

I notice you didn't review so-and-so's album - why not?

Hundreds of rap albums are released every year. Some weeks between indie and major labels as many as 10-12 new albums can come out at one time. This is simply too much for any crew no matter how vigilant to cover. We do our best to cover most of the important and a lot of the independent albums, but some things do slip through the cracks. A polite inquiry coupled with a request for coverage is the most effective. Indignant mail screaming "y'all haters" for not covering an album will be ignored. top

Is RapReviews.com a "professional" website?

Absolutely. We carefully screen all applicants to write for this site. We expect contributors to submit their work exclusively to this site and not reproduce it elsewhere except for their own portfolio. We receive advance copies from major labels and artists and hold our contributors responsible to not copy, bootleg or reproduce those albums. In short we actually hold ourselves to a higher ethical standard than many of the magazines that you buy off the newsstand. We've been around for over 10 years and some of our writers are 15+ year veterans of hip-hop journalism. top

You gave Tupac/Nas/Jay-Z a 6; are you INSANE?!

Yes. You'd have to be nuts to attempt to run a site dedicated to reviewing almost every rap album eve released the way that we do. That said, every record is reviewed on it's merits as pertains to the actual rapper performing. Jay-Z or 2Pac might be a 10 out of 10 rapper in the "all time great MC's" area but even great artists sometimes create albums not up to their high standards. By the same token an otherwise mediocre rapper can receive a high score for an album that exceeds the reviewer's expectations. Bear this in mind and judge reviews more by a writer's description; the scores are only a rough guide. Even if you disagree, screaming about it won't change anything. top

Will you do a 'Back to the Lab' feature on this album?

Thanks for asking. 'Back to the Lab' is one of the most popular features of the site -- so popular in fact that we dedicated a special section of the website to it. We get lots of requests for everybody's favorite "classic" rap albums but due to time constraints we can't do them all, or even do all the ones we want to right away. The best the webmaster can do is either pass on a request to the staff or do it himself, time permitting. Time usually doesn't, but don't worry - if you think it's a "classic" odds are one of the writers does too and plans to cover the album in the future. top

Who gave you f#%#ers the right to criticize anyone?

God; or if you prefer, Allah. Name the diety of your choice. Any artist who puts an album out for public consumption knowingly accepts the right of the public to criticize that album. Unlike other magazines and websites whose ethics may be compromised by advertisements from record labels and artists, our criticism is our own 100% honest opinion. That's the beauty of RapReviews.com but if you don't like it you're entitled to your own critique of our website too. Art has always been judged by other people's perceptions since the dawn of civilization, and barring nuclear apocalypse it most likely always will be. Many of the contributors to this site have been in hip-hop music and culture for 10-20 years; that alone is qualification enough. top


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