>meanwhile their praise of the mistrel culture in hip hop is
>even more disturbing to me (don't let me say the "r" word)
>simply because i see their acceptance of it as some backwards
>way of saying "see this IS REAL AUTHENTIC black life here."

Exactly! I'm so glad other people are picking up on that trend. It's a shame, because a lot cats worship their opinion. I've been reading it for a minute now, but I haven't been able to stomach their rap reviews in the last year or so. When it comes to any other genre, they're all about the experimental, challenging sound, but the minute it turns to hip hop, they bash the same qualities in favor of that cookie-cutter crap.