You can read the response here. Unsurprisingly, the writer was defensive of Complex and the media in general, and as such, thoroughly demonstrated Nipsey’s point.

A few choice quotes:

[Critics] envision the DJs as inundating the minds of innocent people with subpar music, brainwashing them. The reality is that there is a give-and-take between audience and radio.

The media, much like radio, is an atomized aggregation of many different people with different experiences and motivations.

We need more writers willing to document their own feelings about the music, and about their own personal, subjective experiences with music, to explain why artists' work is worthy of our attention.

“Outsiders” writing about hip-hop cultures—hip-hop’s myriad cultures—definitely has a distortive effect. But even more damaging is the lack of knowledgeable writing, period.

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Most artists aren’t going to sell 350,000 albums in a week, without some serious promo. In this sense, the success of Yeezus certainly represents that privileged position in Hip Hop that ‘Ye commands.

Still, he stands as an example of what can be done when you put your heart and soul into music. He’s made some hits that were strictly commercial, but these don’t make up a significant portion of his discography.

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This is bound to seem incredibly ironic coming from one of the preeminent “luxury” rappers. Who was the first Louis Vuitton Don? The Lyor Cohen of Dior Homme? This is partly why MDTF was ineffective: way too bourgeois for it to be a bourgeois critique.

But there’s also reason to believe that Kanye recognizes, and acknowledges, this irony himself. In lines like, “the plan was to drink until the pain over, but what’s worse, the pain or the hangover?” clearly illustrate this idea that it doesn’t matter how rich you are, you’re still not allowed in the elite club. He hit the ceiling on his potential that white hegemony creates.

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15 days before the album’s release, ‘Ye invited Rick Rubin to a “reducing session”, where they stripped down the tracks to really get into that raw emotion. If there was anything wrong with MDTF it was all the lyrical content that was lost to the luxurious production.

Read more about the making of Yeezus HERE!

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From his SNL performance

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It’s undeniable that white people support mainstream Rap music in a major way. A big reason for this is the experience a suburban white kid gets when hearing an album like Get Rich or Die Tryin'. This is not a bad thing in itself, but how accurate a picture are they really getting?

For more context surrounding this issue, watch the clip below and check out this timeless essay from 1993, here on Rap Genius:

“We Use Words Like Mackadocious” (and other progress from the front lines of the White Struggle)

http://youtu.be/mW_Xbj0zNMQ?t=48m20s

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Again, this is not a critique of Gangsta Rap, though it is completely uninspiring in its current form.

This is a critique of the system which allows corporate-bought thug personas to completely dominate the mainstream, watering down the culture.

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