Pitchfork, the Internet's defining hipster voice--at least for music--released their Top 50 Albums of 2007 earlier this week. Though I agree with a lot of their picks in general, the rap albums they deigned to include show how ridiculously out of touch they are with the genre.

All told, Pitchfork selected six rap albums: Dizze Rascal (48, Maths + English), Ghostface (42, The Big Doe Rehab), Wu-Tang Clan (38, 8 Diagrams), Kanye West (18, Graduation), Lil Wayne (16, Da Drought 3) and Jay-Z (13, American Gangster). Can you tell me what's wrong with this list?

1930s gangsters, 70s Motown, 80s DePalma, 90s Shawn Carter-- it'd be a stretch to call Jay-Z a postmodernist, but few MCs exhibit the kind of passion for wrapping themselves in pop culture history that he does.

The sentence "Few MCs exhibit the kind of passion for wrapping themselves in pop culture" does not compute. Has the author of that tidbit of wisdom ever seen a rap video? Sigh.

Somehow the "postmodern" pop-culture whiz Jay-Z landed three spots ahead of Lil Wayne's double-disc RIAA-defying, genre-redefining masterpiece, Da Drought 3--maybe it was his camel-faced slow flow that did it, but it just doesn't make sense to me; did Pitchfork even listen to American Gangster? Nas murks Jay-Z on it. Listen to the track they did together, it's like comparing night and day. Two lazy, emotionless Jay verses serve as a lead in for Nas, who completely exposes Jigga by simply appearing on the track.

Jay - Z f. Nas - Success (zShare)

Jay - Z f. Nas - Success (RapidShare)

My other beef with the list is that three of the albums were December releases. How are you going to include three fourth quarter albums on a list of six? And how does it make any sense that a list including fan-favorite Kanye doesn't also include the most recent UGK effort? Where's Dillagence? Where's Bayani? Color me confused. Pitchfork may have the hipster market down, but they don't know shit about rap--their picks aren't hip, their completely pop.

But hey, at least they like Weezy better than Ye.