From Saturday Night Live’s 40th anniversary special that aired on Sunday.

Here is the first track from Kanye’s new album. Sounding like Yeezus part two at this point in the game…

Second single from Kaytranada’s upcoming sophomore LP on XL Recordings.

Produced By Kaytranada.

Chuck says: “We had a day off in Houston back in 2012, so we made this. You may have heard this on Illroots Radio Volume Three.Five.”

Chicago’s Vic Mensa spits some bars on SBTV.

Produced by Smoko Ono. Directed By Calmatic.

Produced by Michael Uzowuru.

XXL: “Ever since we unveiled the cover of the XXL 2014 Freshmen issue last month, we’ve been rolling out a ton of freestyles, behind the scenes photos, interviews, videos, and plenty more with our class of 12 guys. But now that we’ve got a slew of stories and links for you to check out, it’s time to get down to the Freshmen Cyphers, one of the most anticipated aspects of the cover shoot.

This year, we’ve got an additional three cyphers for everyone to enjoy, and we’ll be rolling them out all week. The first features Chance The Rapper, Isaiah Rashad, Vic Mensa, August Alsina, and Kevin Gates, and is as entertaining visually as it is lyrically. Check out the video above, compare it with some of last year’s Cyphers right here, and let us know what you think in the comments.”

Vic Mensa gives a brief interview to XXL and spits his official Freshmen 2014 freestyle.

New music from the XXL Freshman selection. Clear Chi-town house influence on this one. Directed by Ben Dickinson at Ghost Robot.

From Donnie Trumpet’s self-titled debut album, featuring Chi-Town XXL Freshman, Vic Mensa.

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.

Chicago native Vic Mensa drops by the Scion AV All Purpose Show to speak with Prince Paul and crew about showing different sides of his city through hip-hop, his band Kids These Days, and wanting to be approached by more female fans. Vic wraps up the interview with a true freestyle, featuring Mr. Dead on the beat.

Stefan Ponce on the beat.