Dijon believes music criticism, at least in its current state, is “a little bit too soft.”
The Baby artist and recent SNL musical guest, who’s up for two potential Grammy wins at next year’s ceremony thanks to his work on Justin Bieber’s SWAG album, gave his decidedly astute assessment in a recent conversation with Pitchfork for the publication’s long-running “Over/Under” series.
Asked to declare whether music criticism at large was overrated or underrated, Dijon ultimately came to the conclusion that it is indeed the latter after outlining its undeniable importance in his early life.
“I moved around so much that music criticism was how I learned about things,” he said, as seen below. “I mean, I had cousins and stuff, you know. All the early rap music that I grew up around was given to me. But when I started branching out and I was not really tethered to a space anymore, I would read a ton of music journalism and just try to figure out what CDs to torrent. It really changed my life. I value it quite a bit. I still read a lot of music criticism.”
These days, however, Dijon feels critics aren’t digging in hard enough. This has been a growing critique as of late, particularly in music, as it seems some have traded valuable criticism for a softer approach that ensures artist access.
“I think it’s a little bit too soft now,” Dijon said. “I think all criticism should be dangerously harsh, actually. So, underrated. Pitchfork, honestly you guys can go harder. I think you can go harder. Yeah, be less kind, I think.”
The 33-year-old is currently on the road in support of Baby, recently ranked by Complex as one of the best albums of 2025, coming in at No. 27 between projects from Olivia Dean and Karol G. He’s scheduled to hit Detroit and Minneapolis this week before taking the tour overseas in January.
