They read as very rockist. Not in the sense that Pitchfork didn't respect hip-hop as music as some rockists think. They viewed it more as a voice of rebellion and not an expression of Blackness.

Granted, music criticism was (and seems to still be) a white field, so they probably didn't know what was wrong with them. But they never seemed to acknowledge their limited view of hip-hop made them inauthentic gatekeepers.