Instead of giving credence to the misfired album launches, failed rap careers and a string of uninspiring albums from 2007 we’ve decided to list our New Year resolutions for the two thousand and hate. Call it our pledge if you will.

Papoose & Saigon: We shall not give column inches to these two rappers until they officially release an album worthy of our appraisal. We shall not speculate as to which label they’ve signed to nor what Just Blaze thinks about anything.

Internet MCs: We will not pay lip service to any rappers who openly use the internet to reach their fans via web casts, viral happy New Year messages or the like. That shit is acceptable only from Mariah Carey.

Kanye West: Any further assessment of Kanye will only be in terms of his musical output, rather than his ego, clothes or his mother’s plastic surgery decisions. Three great albums – he’s earned that right. Take note internet MCs.

Producers: Living producers will receive the continued and equal acclaim as producers who met an untimely death. We shall let J Dilla finally rest in peace.

Dr. Dre: We shall not perpetually speculate as to whether the ‘Detox’ album will be released in 2008 or beyond. It’s too late now anyway. This applies to any Dr. Dre affiliated rapper with comeback albums in the pipeline. But if ‘Detox’ does drop we reserve the right to back track and hail Dre as the messiah.

Ring Tone Rappers: We will place these artists on the highest pedestal. They’re short lived but smart.

Lupe Fiasco: We’ll leave the highbrow debate as to whether Lupe is the greatest lyricist of our generation to our more knowledgeable commentators. We pledge to fully support him for the duration of his career unless he publicly makes an ass of himself again, at which point we have artistic license to rip the piss out of his clothes and squeaky voice.

Mid School: More emphasis will be placed on artists whose careers blossomed 1990-1996. This forgotten generation often plays second fiddle to pre-1990 artists here at Fat Lace. We aim to allow them parity with immediate effect. Artists like De La Soul and Onyx could well benefit.

Albums: Records with more than 5 producers will no longer be taken seriously, whilst those with only one will instantly be inducted into our Hall Of Fame. Even if it’s Chingy. We will not predict the titles or album covers of high profile releases. We will judge albums on merit. Fat Lace will not speculate as to what first week sales we think an album will do. Similarly we will not report what week 1 or week 2 sales were. Only trade publications like Billboard should do that.

Regional Rap: Music from the nether regions will receive our ongoing support. The Yay Area, Hotlanta and UK rap will benefit from equal coverage.

Clipse: Not a day will pass when we do not eagerly anticipate the new Clipse album.

Devin The Dude: Will continue to be referred to as the world’s most underrated artist, despite this now being the most lazy journalistic cliché in the world.

Jay-Z: We will no longer take anything Jay-Z does outside of making music seriously. We do not care what his next move is since resigning from Def Jam. Neither do we care who his successor is. We would rather post You Tube footage of children falling through thin ice.

80/20 Rule: 80% of our content will remain original. The remaining 20% will be crap we jack from other blogs.

New Artists: We shall remain sceptical of new artists that aren’t particularly good like Kid Sister and Spank Rock but for some reason have garnered some buzz. We shall not offer them coverage until we have an epiphany at which point we will apologize.

Mixtapes: We shall continue to afford them the appropriate respect in their key role as a promotional tool, rather than including them in end of year ‘album’ lists in an attempt to appear trendy.

Miscellaneous: We will continue to bring you Crap Graf, Freaky Fridays, vintage Westwood, Rappers Retirement homes and all that other good Fat Lace fodder. We have retired the Ghostface Doll though.