The Decline of The XXL Freshman List
The annual XXL Freshman list is a shortlist of up and coming rappers that the iconic Hip-Hop publication feels took the game by storm over the year prior. Historically being selected was an important honor, not just for personal pride, but because it immediately introduces the selected artists to a national audience. The selection comes with a magazine cover appearance as well as multiple opportunities for artists to show off their personality, talent, and skill set. Freestyle videos and cyphers, along with the whole Hip-Hop community chiming in guarantees access to reach that can position them for superstardom. However, over the years between controversial selections and a shift in the average Hip-Hop star’s skillset, being an XXL Freshman has begun to lose its luster.
Starting in 2012 with the selection of Roscoe Dash, XXL practically began saving a spot for at least one melodic artist clearing the way for Ty Dolla $ign, August Alsina, and Fetty Wap over the following few years. These selections began to set a new precedent for the genetic makeup of the list. A genetic makeup that would lead to the 2016 XXL Freshman solidifying their place in the game despite the criticisms.
XXL’s selection of Anderson. Paak, 21 Savage, Kodak Black, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Dicky, Dave East, Denzel Curry, Desiigner, G Herbo, and Lil Yachty proved to be one of the most influential classes since the inception of the annual list, made up of SoundCloud pioneers, misunderstood creative geniuses, skilled, unorthodox wordsmiths... and Desiigner. However, this class was met with much criticism, mainly as a reaction to the annual XXL cyphers where the artists are broken into small groups for each rapper to showcase their skills via a verse over a beat predetermined by XXL. In the past rappers would come prepared, some writing a verse specifically for the cypher, some recycling a verse from a song, or just freestyling. The 2016 class, however, managed to balance their skills with their iconic trolling leading to the most YouTube views in the publication’s history. The trolling mainly came as a reaction to DJ Drama’s beat selection that didn’t complement the skills of the new artists. Because of this, XXL had to find a way to not set themselves up to continue to look like they were stuck in the past.
With the increasing selection of Hip-Hop artists who focus more on melodies and less on lyricism, you have to question the modern effectiveness of the cyphers on artists like Playboi Carti and most recently Coi Leray who lack freestyle rap skills. The lack of traditional rap skills set them up for failure and viral lowlights during the cover’s media cycle. One could easily argue the time it took for XXL to change its format is a sign of XXL’s mishandling and outdated format of promotion for the selections each year, forcing upcoming artists into unfamiliar situations with the expectation they execute styles that came and went before the artist’s career even began.
The issue is unlike classes in the past, these new crops of artists aren’t as comfortable freestyling perfectly first take or writing. Going forward, it may be best for the selected producer to make a song with the different cypher groups in the studio and then have XXL shoot a music video for each song. What’s the point of continuing to force artists to spit verses that lead to their embarrassment when everybody in the world knows that’s not their bag. XXL should make it an opportunity to let artists work off each other's strengths in real-time. Most of the artists are hitmakers already and it would benefit XXL to make promotable songs with the artists than to continue forcing them to rap cyphers in what can be an awkward cult-like format.
Fans nationwide have criticized XXL’s selections in general with the criticism coming from fans who feel their favorite young artists got snubbed, older Hip-Hop fans, and fans that haven’t been introduced to the artists yet. Social media always elevates negativity and the potential negativity generated in a viral freestyle fail by an artist has the potential to close off new fans and stifle an artist’s trajectory. However, XXL has slowly begun to get the memo and has been using more modern producers, most recently Nick Mira, but the publication still has very far to go to bring back respect to the XXL Freshman list.
