. . .on their own defines whether or not something is or isn't an EP, I see what you were going for.

And frankly I'm tired of people critiquing illmatic for being short. What about the two mediocre beats?

To answer the question that begs to be asked though: there's actually more grey area than most of us would probably be willing to admit as far as what is or isn't an EP. I think most music nerds would agree that it's a combination of how many actual tracks the release has, what they consist of and their collective length.

For example, I don't think a five song album should automatically be judged on its amount of tracks. One the one hand, you have a five track release like this, which is well in excess of an hour long: http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-last-session-r342828/review
Alternately, you have a five track release like this, which is clearly an EP, clocking in at about fifteen minutes: http://www.allmusic.com/album/king-krule-main-entry-r2335132

And I don't think there would be much argument between my dissection.

~Austin

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