A REVIEW OF A REVIEW: PITCHFORK "INVASION OF PRIVACY"

So I’m a dive right into this. There was this tweet brought to my attention by someone who reads my blog and they wanted to know what did I think about this review of Cardi B’s debut album “Invasion Of Privacy” on Pitchfork” I only know Pitchfork for one thing and that’s their series “Over/Under” where they ask artists if random things are overrated or underrated. I enjoy those segments. So outside of that, I don’t know if Pitchfork journalism is real or a joke. I’ll leave it up to yall to fill me in later. 

At first I seen the score out of 10 the guy gave it a 8.7. So I’m thinking initially “So?” But everyone’s gripe with the score was that it was higher than 3 key albums. 

Jay-Z’s “4:44” …… Lyrics, Message, Production, Creativity…… yeah it’s not touching 4:44 in any way, shape, or form.

Tyler The Creator’s “Flower Boy” …. In my humble opinion. I thought this was the best album of last year. Tyler’s sound not only evolved but the lyricism, the message, the production was INSANE especially the key spots he put vocals in and the transitions WERE LEGENDARY! Invasion Of Privacy does not come close to this album. Tyler made a ton of new fans off this album.

Kanye West “The College Dropout” …. Umm yeah. The debut album of a icon. Self explanatory. 

Even Jay-Z’s “The Black Album” got a lower score than Invasion Of Privacy. A album with the song “Allure” on it got a lower score than Invasion Of Privacy……..I’m laughing out loud literally as I type this. 

Now this is this guy’s opinion. I don’t hate him for it. But I can disagree with it and when I read the actual review he wrote I couldn’t help but laugh out loud and ask myself these 2 questions. 

“Did he give her this score because he genuinely feels this way?”

Or….

“Did he give her this score because she’s what’s hot at the moment and does not want to be hated or outcasted for future media opportunities with Cardi?”

After reading the review I’m convinced that it’s the latter. The trend in the industry is that the journalists can’t honestly say what they feel about the music or the relationship with that artist and the artist relationship with the publication they work for is fucked.

If I was to rate “Invasion Of Privacy” out of 10 I’d give it a 6. Somewhere in that range. It’s an album that I accept it for what it is. That’s not bad in my world. There’s a lot of albums that I rate in that range that I listen to. I reviewed it and it’s a fun album where everyone is celebrating Cardi’s success. It’s literally the rags to riches story and everyone loves a story like that. 

Let me go over two things I laughed at while reading this review.  

“In addition to honing her natural tendency toward pithiness, Cardi is becoming a complete MC. She plays clever word association games like mixtape Lil Wayne (“I came here to ball, is you nuts?”) and finds her place among New York’s more dynamic and prolific punchers like Cam’ron and Jadakiss.” 

Bruh. I love Cardi B. I love her unfiltered personality. She never says bad things about people. She seems cool. She’s funny. But c’mon my G. He compares her to mixtape Wayne (Which is insane and also not fair to her) a guy that literally went on a impossible mixtape run from 2002-2011 and was spazzing on all of them. He compared her to Mixtape Wayne then quotes a terrible line after it and then says she finds her place with prolific punchers like Jadakiss and Cam’Ron. NIGGA WHAT? He puts her in place with humans that said “We so for real (Soul 4 Real) in the hood we make candy rain” and “They in love like the 14th of February play em like April 1st right before I slide off. It could be March 2nd and sound like July 4th.” Like seriously who in the fuck is this guy and why would he disrespect those legends like that? Why? Why is he comparing her to anybody?

Moving along. 

"The production on the album is sumptuous and varying. A record daring enough to produce the buzzing “Bartier Cardi,” the R&B-infused “Ring,” and the quiet prowler “Thru Your Phone,” Invasion of Privacy never shrinks away from a potential risk, delivering hugely satisfying payoffs."

Nigga. None of the production or songwriting on this album is risky. Almost all of it is formulaic. It’s a formulaic structured industry album. To Pimp A Butterfly production and songwriting is risky and varying. The album this nigga gave an 8, College Dropout production and songwriting is risky, Flower Boy has risky production and songwriting. Invasion Of Privacy only risky song production wise is “I Like It.” The rest of the production is manufactured industry sound and the songwriting is formulas we’ve heard before. It’s song concepts we’ve heard before and seen placed on thousands of albums before. There's no risk in the structure of it. Nothing wrong with that but this nigga acting like the producers and songwriters created titties and tacos. 

The reason I guess this review is odd to me is because the guy who wrote it just comes off as a nigga trying to fit in. All these big ass words in this review make me laugh. Like my nigga she talking bout popping pussy on a stove this isn’t a dissertation in biochemistry. It’s not that complicated or deep. It’s just a fun album I’m gonna enjoy getting lapdances to and getting drunk to. This weirdo was talking like she was just this musical genius that transcended music. I’ve never heard Stevie Wonder’s music described like the way this guy described Invasion Of Privacy and he made “Songs In The Key Of Life.” 

Cardi’s strength in her music is her personality, story of her grind and her straight forward attitude everything else this nigga talking bout on this review is forced and I can tell. She’s not really that versatile of an artist and her team of songwriters make up for it in those areas. She still has a lot of improving to do and if she has the right people around her then I’m sure she will. 

I deal in reality. Like I said in my review it’s a solid debut but I’m judging it by Cardi’s standards but when you bring other albums into the fold that’s when we have a different ballgame and you see the album for what it is. We love Cardi for the person she is so we judge her music differently. 

Just my opinion. Peace.