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XXL Magazine has released their official 2014 Freshmen cover. The list of artists included are as follows: Chance the Rapper, Isaiah Rashad, Ty Dolla $ign, Rich Homie Quan, Vic Mensa, August Alsina, Troy Ave, Kevin Gates, Lil Bibby, Jon Connor, Lil Durk, and fan pick, Jarren Benton. That actually makes 12, rather than the usual 10, complete with an asterix that reads “Yeah we’ve got R&B this year.” Something tells us this will be the first and last year that happens.


How did we fare on our initial predictions for the list back in March? Not bad. We got 6 of the artists correct, with Chance The Rapper, Isaiah Rashad, Ty Dolla $ign, Rich Homie Quan, Troy Ave, and Jon Connor.

We were a bit surprised to see Sage and IamSu omitted given their heavy buzz, and we’re sure the Bay is none to thrilled about that.

Our pick of Gunplay was a gamble, but not surprisingly, the political MMG slot was instead filled in with their R&B artist, August Alsina, strangely.

We also knew Riff Raff was a bit of a stretch, considering that he isn’t taken that seriously, but we thought there might have been a ODB / wildcard type angle on that one.

Much love was given to the bubbling Chicago scene; we didn’t think there was any way that both Vic Mensa and Chance The Rapper could make the list, let alone two rappers from the same city with “Lil” in their name, but hey. Afterthought, we would have picked Vic Mensa as well.


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30 Responses to "XXL 2014 Freshmen Cover Revealed; How Accurate Were We?"
  • Hodges says:

    Those some depressing lists, Piz. I check for 8 out of those 70 “artists”. The low was 2012, my God.

  • Justmarv says:

    Let’s see how long many years these mc’s go without putting any music officially, retail hard copies. I think they do that out if fear if failure, find out all that hype doesn’t lead to moving a significant number of units. The average fan of many of these mc’s are fickle, trendy, they’ll stop liking an artist because they aren’t hot anymore, even if the quality of their music is still good. I still look forward to the list, although I might not dig most of the mc’s, if I’ve actually heard their stuff.

  • The Man the Myth says:

    I check for Action Bronson, other than that, none of these guys’ music blows me away. Kendrick, Ab-soul, Schoolboy Q, Joey Bada$$ get honorable mentions and I usually give their albums a DL, but none of their music is really worthy of purchase for me. The 2008-2010 lists are completely terrible. I could give a rats behind about big club records, and you say there is a west coast revival. I can see that, but the quality of the west compared to the quality of the west in say 95 is night and day. Kendrick and his crew are way worse than Above the Law, Death Row, Freestyle Fellowship, Heiroglyphics, Dangerous Crew, Sic Wid-it. Just my opinion

  • Ozi battle says:

    Thanks pizzo, much love to what you out out every day. Great list to look back on ans see who I am into to. And I am into a fee

  • Dayz says:

    Looking over all the classes I only listen to 9 of those artists. I guess my point is I don’t really listen to commercialized rap or anything that gets promoted through conventional media. Call me a fickle old man but again I’ll say it rap and Hip Pop sucks I live and breathe Hip Hop and most of those guys are not a part of the Hip Hop world/community I choose to be in/associate with. So yeah maybe these guys are relevant to the corporations and the masses but they have zero relavancy in my world. I almost finished up my 12 picks for my 2014 Freshman class which I’ll post this weekend.
    P.S. – The PUTS LP is bonkers! Purchase it NOW! They dropped another classic.

  • Comments (30)

    Ozi battle

    May 5th, 2014 at 7:12 pm