"The Best Hip Hop of 2011" by Sasha Frere-Jones - TheNewYorker.com

The honorable Sasha Frere-Jones weighs in on the best hip hop of the year. Frankly, I used to love hip hop, but lately I find it boring as hell. I've blogged at length about the depths of awfulness I find within Drake and his music. But Kanye's insecure braggadocio, Jay-Z's lazy, billionaire-aspirant rhymes, and whatever the fuck Yelawolf is doing just don't speak to me anymore. Maybe I'm getting old. Or more likely, rap just sucks lately. Frere-Jones seems to think so.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2011/12/the-best-hip-hop-of-2011.html

P.S. No offense to Action Bronson. Keep doing you son! (Can't hyperlink because blogspot is fucking with me. Here's a link to a song you should listen to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNKeBoRbifw)

"Lady Gaga: 59 Questions" by Stephen Marche - Esquire.com

I like Stephen Marche, Esquire's pop culture writer. Here he tears Stefani Germanotta a new one. I don't agree with everything he says though. For example, as far as crappy pop music goes, I think Gaga actually makes some of the better songs out there that were designed to be fetishized by 15 year old girls. She's like a female Kanye to me. I despise her whole persona and if you stuck me in a room with her I'd be pissed, but at the end of the day, I dunno, her songs aren't half bad. Kind of hard to hate her. Not that it stops Marche. I can't decide if he comes off a little old-timey here. He might. But my man is he angry. And angry's good sometimes.

http://www.esquire.com/features/thousand-words-on-culture/lady-gaga-questions-0511?click=pp