XXL magazine releases their highly-anticipated yearly hip-hop Freshman Class

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      After much discussion and debate on hip-hop forums over who deserved to make the cut, XXL magazine has finally revealed its list of the most promising rising stars in the genre. This is the 12th time that XXL has put this annual list together.

      The voters narrowed down a list of 80 of hip-hop’s best and brightest to the 11 artists that make up this year’s Freshman Class. The final list includes Gunna, DaBaby, Rico Nasty, Lil Mosey, Roddy Ricch, YBN Cordae, YK Osiris, Comethazine, Tierra Whack, and Megan Thee Stallion, while Blueface won his inclusion via an online fan vote.

      The list has always been pretty spot-on at predicting future success. This year’s nominees join an impressive group of rap stars including Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Travis Scott, Lil Uzi Vert and Mac Miller.

      Many of this year’s list have already made a huge impact on the charts this year.

      Gunna, DaBaby, and Blueface have already scored top 10 hit singles on Billboard, and the list is actually quite diverse this year in terms of the different styles they bring to the table.

      YBN Cordae holds it down on the lyrical end of the spectrum with his dizzying flows, while YK Osiris is much more melodic and Rico Nasty verges on trap metal.

      We’re really excited about Tierra Whack’s inclusion. She just might be one of the least commercial choices they’ve ever made after her highly experimental Whack World, featuring numerous tracks with a runtime of exactly one minute.

      If you’re wondering where emo-trap savant Juice WRLD is, he reportedly declined to be included on this year’s list.

      With three, the Freshman Class includes a record number of women this year, as Tierra, Rico, and Megan continue to display just how many strides forward women in hip-hop have taken this year. Check out our article on the subject here.

      Like previous years, we can expect XXL to post various series of videos involving the Freshman Class, including interviews, opportunities for each artist to spit a freestyle verse, and the most fun part—cyphers where we can see them play off of each other.

      If you’ve never seen this video of today’s rap stars joking around and hyping each other up when they were just on the brink of exploding  into the mainstream, enjoy. 21 Savage shuts this cypher down.

      In a couple years, we might be looking back on this year’s class the same way.

      For the first time, the Freshman Class will head out on tour together as well, and are scheduled to perform two concerts as a unit in New York and Los Angeles in late July.

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