XXL 10 Freshmen for ’10 – Rank ‘Em
On Monday XXL released the cover for its 10 Freshmen for ’10 issue following a month-long promo campaign that featured videos of each rapper on the list flowing. After doing some digging I found out a few fun facts:
1. Drake and Nicki Minaj turned down the opportunity to be on the list because they felt they were too good for it at this point.
2. Apparently Drake also felt like it was a huge snub that he didn’t make the list in ’09, but it may have been better for his career seeing as half of the people on that list (see: Ace Hood, Cory Gunz, Mickey Factz, Asher Roth, Charles Hamilton) have plateaued like a motherfucker.
3. Either way, XXL missed out on the boy from T Dot and may have made another gaffe this year: XV. Dude made major noise with Everybody’s Nobody and has been steadily releasing material since. XXL better hope he stays below the radar so they don’t go 2-for-2!
4. Check back for more details about the XXL Top 10 Freshmen Party going down in NYC later this month. Seeing all these dudes at one time would be pretty ill.
Hit the skip for the 10 videos. Watch them all the way through (the longest is only about a minute), vote for whose verse you thought was the best, and if you have a sec leave a comment explaining why.
Fashawn – Most Artistic
Wiz Khalifa – Most Charismatic
Nipsey Hussle – Most Determined
O.J. Da Juiceman – Most Flashy
T3 of Slum Village
Miguel Jontel
Aloe Blacc
Yelawolf
Guilty Simpson
Homeboy Sandman
Questlove
Sage Francis and B. Dolan
Treklife
Element
DJ Webstar
Moonsatellite
gave it to fashawn “without a dance from souljah boy/ you gotta salute/ how i came in the game” and he knows how to rhyme the same word and have it work: complex without bein on the cover of ‘complex.’ j cole is on point like always tho. but somebody needs to tell those kats from the south that you cant rhyme basketball player with basketball player or coke classic with coke classic!
Gotta give it to Fashawn on this one. I’ll lobby for J. Cole and Wiz any day, but ‘shawn’s verse, to me, is so relevant to hip hop today. I still can’t believe OJ got a nod though. I enjoy my fair share of ignorant rap on occasion, but to say the poor man’s Gucci Mane is projected to be one of the best of ’10 is a little farfetched.
‘smoking on some strong, got bitches who smoke bongs, papers and bowls/ so pretty much anything goes’
Young Khalifa. Dude has the energy and wordplay.
@seanermc yea. at the least Donnis’ coke classic line is in the middle of a bunch of bars worth of rhymes though. OJ Da Juiceman only spit four lines and two of them ended in basketball player. FAIL
Though I think J. Cole, Wiz Khalifa, and Big Sean far surpass him when it comes to making music, Freddie Gibbs kills the a capella freestyle. His flow creates it’s own rhythm and almost it’s own beat. Everyone else, save maybe Big Sean, sounds like the beat’s missing; Freddie Gibbs sounds like he doesn’t need a beat.
Its gotta be a two man race Fashawn and Nipsey. I voted Nipsey just on my impressions. I didnt like J. Cole even though hes got me by the ear right now, hes the class of this class though. OJ was shocking.
well hip hops already on life support and if this is a little glimpse into the future…well we should all be picking out an outfit for the funeral…hip hop we loved you and you will be missed
@TPop haha ‘OJ was shocking’ <– cosign
@jersey really? not a single one seems promising to you?