Hey, hi, and hello, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, Internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you're doing well.

Let's talk about the music discourse, maybe? I will kick it off like this. I saw this clip that I'm about to show you. It stopped me in my tracks and made me feel some feelings.

"Before we listen to any music, I have an announcement:

[AI Voice] Warning, I am not a music expert. I am a bum. I have never claimed to be a judge of music, but I have my own opinion. Warning, I am not a music expert. I am a bum. I have never claimed to be a judge of music, but I have my own opinion." - Kai Cenat

If you have no context for what you just saw, let me explain it for you. That is a clip from famed streamer Kai Cenat, who is one of the most successful, sought after, and popular, and relevant live streamers on the internet right now.

The guy has countless viewers and supporters, has won awards, and is currently in the midst of a massive career that I can't fully break down right now, not just because I don't have time, but it's not really the point of this.

What is the point is that Kai does a lot of different stuff on his streams, from gaming to interviews to IRL streams as well as reactions. And sometimes what Kai is reacting to on his streams is music.

Now, despite that not being a main focus of Kai's content, a lot of people have noticed that his opinion still has a lot of sway in the music community in terms of what people or projects his fans will take seriously based upon his endorsement. This has led to some certain things, like labels, and PR people wanting to work with Kai to promote certain artists around their album cycles. Also, Kai being mentioned toward the top of really significant lists that put together everyone who's relevant in the sphere of Internet hip hop media, including me, which I'm much lower on this totem pole than Kai Cenat is.

Now, a lot of people are really starting to take notice of this influence that Kai has over the music space, over the hip hop space. And there's beginning to be just a lot of complaints about how undeserved it is, how clueless and uninformed Kai's opinions are, and how he shouldn't really have any say over anything going on in hip hop music or just music broadly.

Sometimes I see this phenomenon discussed as if Kai is basically eroding the very fabric of music journalism itself, that he's a blemish on the industry, overshadowing the hard and much more in-depth work of actual music commentarians and writers. I'm here to say I don't think it's that serious, and we need to calm the fuck down.

Kai clearly doesn't want people taking his music opinions too seriously and is openly acknowledging that they're not super in-depth or well-informed.

"That's all I got to say. I will be playing that in between every song, my n**** because for some reason, n****s think it's not cool to have opinions, and that shit is annoying, my n**** I want to go ahead and tell you, n****s, I, quite frankly don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck if that n****s value my opinion or I don't give a fuck if n****s don't. You feel me? I'm a n**** in this room listening to music, my n****. That's all, bro." - Kai Cenat

And while personally, I have had my disagreements with Kai and some takes that he's had in the past, most notably this really weird blowup that he had over how blasphemous he felt Lil Nas X's music video content was. Like, relax. But with that being said, I just don't see how what Kai is doing is all that harmful.

Because speaking as the guy who a lot of people see as "Mr. Music Review," I just see what I am offering and what Kai is offering as completely different things. And while maybe he is highly influential in the music space, it's in a totally different way that I am or anybody doing anything similar to what I do.

I mean, the fact of the matter is, even if Kai Cenat was on his stream doing super in-depth analysis of various new albums that have come out, I don't think that's something that his fans would want from him anyway. That's not the appeal of his streams or the content that he does.

He makes like, vibes shit. You're just there pulling up, having fun, chilling out, having a good time. Whatever is new and most relevant and on the docket to be talked about is going to be talked about. If that so happens to be an album, they're all going to have a universal experience together just hearing it, and they're going to agree, they're going to disagree, and it's going to get exposure on Kai's stream in the same way that, I don't know, maybe some band might if they played an episode of the Jimmy fucking Fallon show.

And that's no disrespect to Kai. I think he's a very entertaining guy who most definitely has a standout personality. But very much the way that I read his content is he's like a talk show host for the live streaming age. And I don't really see what he's doing as a harm or a detriment to music reviews or music analysis, because what he's doing is in no way a replacement for it.

The guy's audience is very young. They've barely formed their own opinions around anything yet. If they're taking a music opinion from him seriously, it's most likely because they think he's cool, or they think he's funny, or they see themselves in him in some way. And there's nothing inherently wrong with that. I mean, there's room for different types of content that appeal in different types of ways.

And look, as much effort as I try to put into my own reviews in terms of the messages I'm trying to get across or the ways I'm justifying my opinion, I can't deny that I have my own appeal in that way, too, because there are lots of people who watch my content because they see themselves in me or what I do in some way. For me, even if there is an attempt at depth there, there's also a vibes appeal, too. Maybe it's not everyone's vibe, but it's certainly the vibe of at least a few million people.

I basically bring all of this up to say that for as long as music and art criticism has existed, it has never been the primary way through which people are necessarily exposed to or turned onto art. It's definitely a way that can be a gateway into certain artistic works and can certainly be a tool for trying to gain a deeper understanding of art itself.

But throughout history, art and human communication around art has been distributed and disseminated in a variety of different ways. Art criticism is just one. For as long as contemporary art criticism has been a thing, there have also been radio shows and talk shows and all sorts of media marketing, none of which have taken away from the power and significance of art criticism itself because it's doing something different than art criticism itself.

So yes, while, again, Kai does have a lot of influence in the music space and the hip hop space, maybe more than you think your favorite music reviewer should, he has a different influence in the music space. Even if his opinions aren't necessarily the most informed, I would at the very least hope that he's passionate about the things that he's advocating for and saying he likes or doesn't like.

But yeah, those are going to be my thoughts on that topic. Let me know what you guys think about all of this in the comments. Is Kai Cenat destroying the very fabric of music coverage as we know it? Let me know. You're the best.

Anthony Fantano. Kai Cenat. Forever.