Engine

Yeah - his point is that professional music critics feel pressure to give rap albums good reviews not because they honestly like the albums but because they are afraid of "upsetting that audience". I don't understand what he means by that so I asked. Maybe you can explain his point to me?

I disagree. It's hard for me to believe that critics care that much about how they are perceived by their readers but I don't read the major publications so maybe I'm missing something. It's the job of critics to review whatever falls into their lap (which is the main reason I would not want to be one) but why is it so hard to believe that they sometimes actually like what falls there? Lord knows, people love to read negative reviews so aren't critics just as susceptible to writing bad reviews of rap just so that they don't "upset" the presumably large segment of their audience who hates rap? I dunno. As someone who likes rap I can understand occasionally liking the flavor of the month rapper so writing good rap reviews doesn't seem like some sort of disingenuous plot.