Revenge of the yupsters.

The omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent Pitchfork has released its top 50 albums of 2005 list . Yes, I am convinced that they can make a rock so heavy they can't lift...but then they lift it. Well, I am in no place to criticize them (I will do it anyways) because music is their job and I won't touch their indie choices but their hip hop choices are questionable. Here is Pitchfork's list if you haven't seen it already:

50. Orthrelm - OV 49. The Fiery Furnaces - EP 48. Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy47. The Boy Least Likely To - The Best Party Ever 46. Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine 45. M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us 44. Vashti Bunyan - Lookaftering 43. Spoon - Gimme Fiction 42. My Morning Jacket - Z 41. Róisín Murphy - Ruby Blue40. Young Jeezy - Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101 39. Robyn - Robyn 38. Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow 37. Dominik Eulberg - Kreucht & Fleucht 36. Keith Fullerton Whitman - Multiples 35. The Game - The Documentary34. Silver Jews - Tanglewood Numbers 33. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm Remixed 32. Beanie Sigel - The B.Coming 31. Konono No. 1 - Congotronics 30. Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better 29. Serena Maneesh - Serena Maneesh 28. Sunn O))) - Black One 27. Jamie Lidell - Multiply 26. The Decemberists - Picaresque 25. Alan Braxe & Friends - The Upper Cuts 24. The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree23. Ladytron - The Witching Hour22. Broadcast - Tender Buttons21. Bonnie "Prince" Billy & Matt Sweeney - Superwolf 20. The Hold Steady - Seperation Sunday19. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods18. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah 17. The Clientele - Strange Geometry16. Love Is All - Nine Times That Same Song 15. Clipse - We Got It 4 Cheap, Vol. 214. Vitalic - OK Cowboy 13. Various Artists - Run The Road12. New Pornographers - Twin Cinema 11. Isolee - We Are Monster10. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary9. Cam'ron - Purple Haze 8. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem 7. Animal Collective - Feels 6. Deerhoof - The Runners Four 5. Antony and the Johnsons - I Am a Bird Now4. M.I.A. - Arular 3. Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock & Roll2. Kanye West - Late Registration 1. Sufjan Steven - Illinois

Sufjan Stevens yeah yeah yeah hes the greatest everybody loves him he can do no wrong and his Illinoise cd is loved by hipsters coast to coast. But lets cut out the indie fat and look at the hip hop they chose in order.

1. Kanye West~Late Registration--Should have been the No. 1 album of the year. Better then Sufjan Stevens for its cultural impact alone. Hard to swallow social commentary throughout the disc not to mention his infamous "George Bush doesn't like black people" statement. No mainstream hip hopper is rapping about blood diamonds, Ronald Regan destroying the black panthers, infiltration of crack cocaine into the black community and the AIDS epidemic in the same album. Not to mention the production value of this record is astonishing (thanks partly to Co-producer Jon Brion).

2. M.I.A.~Arular--Fresh. Something not heard before, a women of Sri Lankan origin paired with her boyfriend and master beat producer Wesley Pentz (Diplo), rapping with a style that can only be classified as "fearless and aggressive" with some very serious messages (poverty, war, consumerism). A review by Lily Moayeri states it best, "in just forty minutes, M.I.A. has produced an unparalleled mongrel mix of hip-hop, ragga, dancehall, electro and punk."

Ok I can deal with their first those two picks. I of course would have Kanye #1 and then MIA right where Pitchfork had them around #3 or #4. Here is the rest of the list as it appears indie music free.

3. Cam'ron (aka Killa Cam)--The third best hip hop album of the year? You must be joking.
4. 'Clipse--Pusha T of Clipse picked himself for album of the year, classey move champ. The idea of creating a mix tap is pretty cool though.
5. Various Artists ~ Run the Road -- Have to be honest here, I have not heard this album its a collection of UK rappers and I recognize Dizzie Rascal and Kano, so I will give this a listen before dismissing it.
6. Biene Siegal -- Uhh no...sorry not the 6th best Hip Hop album of this year.
7. The Game -- Bears versus Packers? That is The Game. Actually I should give this a listen cause it has gotten rave reviews. The fact that he was dropped from G-Unit by 50 Cent is appealing but the whole shooting bit turns me off. And yes I know he is on a Kanye track, I still don't give him any love.
8. Young Jeezy (aka Jay L. Jenkins) ~ Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101 --Are you serious? I guess he is serious. I will look more into what univeristy Young Jeezy is teaching his introductory course to Thug Motivation, perhaps he will teach me what he is "getting." Seems like Ole Jeezy should be teaching the course, but what do I know?

The most glaring omission from Pitchfork's list in terms of hip hop has to be the Danger Doom album. It is one of the years best albums in any genre. It didn't even make the top 50! Get real. What about Common's Be? Or Blackalicious' The Craft? ZTrip's Shifting Gears? All would have been better then some of the stuff Pitchfork chose to represent hip-hop this year.

But, maybe this should all be taken with a grain of salt given my distaste for violence-muchismo-laiden-ganster hip-hop, and my draw towards underground acts stressing lyrics and messages over radio play and platinum grills.