This is the Pitchwork Review, the show about the musicians we're obsessed with and the albums you need to know right now.

I'm Pugia Patel, the editor-in-chief, and today we're going to talk about 2022 in rap.

And to do all of that, I'll be joined by staff writer Alphonse Pierre and contributor Dilling Green.

Hello, friends. Peace. Thank y'all for having me.

What's up, Pujia?

So I wanted to kind of talk about something that we have a lot of conversations about,

generally in the staff and also just specifically within hip-hop, which is what the role of the album is in rap

in the present day. You know, we are in the business of reviewing albums and treating albums

like they are the most complete form of the art, right? But rap doesn't move that way. You know, rap is a singles-based genre

in my perspective, especially in the way that rap moves right now. It moves so fast. People are not

waiting to, like, put out a perfectly curated, like, release in the way that they once were.

So I'm wondering if you think it makes sense to talk about rap in the context of an album anymore

or just what your perspective is on how it's being released and how that's changing more and

more.

I mean, that's something that I think about every single time I write an album review is

if this is an album where the intention is to be an album or is it just to like push a song?

Is it to push a couple songs?

I know everybody has their like Spotify recaps and stuff at the end of the year, but I listen to a lot of my albums on SoundCloud.

And it was because I found it easier to just like press like and save the songs that I did like from those albums, that where the intention wasn't to make a great full body

of work, but to like just throw darts at the wall and see what sticks. Yeah. Dylan, do you have any

thoughts?

I think there are plenty of people who are still preoccupied with, like, albums as, like, a statement.

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