Not familiar? It’s because it’s a French magazine. Youngin’s on the come up. This issue drops in July if you’re in France then.
Probably my favorite magazine along with Complex. It used to be XXL but they got rid of Elliott Wilson and I can’t really fuck with Vanessa Satten like that. Meh, nothing lasts forever, and now Elliott is the EIC at RESPECT so it all comes full circle. On sale May 29th. Support hip hop print.
So it’s three in the morning and I’m up writing an incredibly boring summary about the impacts of the Revolutionary War and Civil War on the development of American agrarian society, so naturally I’ve been checking in on Twitter all too frequently. Luckily, I came across this and figured I’d share. Although I can’t imagine ever turning to People for music advice, it’s nice to see a source not affiliated with hip-hop recognizing the masterpiece that was My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. On top of that, OutKast’s Speakerboxx/The Love Below is sitting comfortably at number four; you won’t catch me complaining about that.
So XXL just released the cover for their 2012 freshman class. If you’re not familiar, this is kind of notorious in hip-hop for being a big event…. that really doesn’t matter that much. More than anything, it just gets people worked about behind the scenes politics and let’s everyone throw their two cents in about who they think should or should not have graced the issue. Nonetheless, it’s fun, especially when you see some guys you’ve been riding with for a while get some shine.
This year’s class: Machine Gun Kelly, Danny Brown, Kid Ink, Future, Roscoe Dash, Hopsin, Macklemore, Don Trip, Iggy Azalea and French Montana.
I really enjoy the list this year actually, as the XXL crew did a pretty good job of incorporating some of the different facets of hip-hop, making selections ranging from Macklemore to Don Trip. I can see most of these MCs continuing their success and having solid careers in the industry.
However, in my opinion, there’s a few noticeable absentees in the class. First and foremost being A$AP’s head honcho Rocky. However that was supposedly by his own choice, stating a busy schedule as reasoning. Also Casey Veggies, Schoolboy Q and Jon Connor should have found their way on to this list in my humble opinion. Connor’s appearance might be a little premature though, seeing as the usual selections already have a solid fan base (and sometimes aren’t even “freshman” at all) and Connor is still working his way up to that point. But if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, Connor is murking about 97.3% of the new guys in the game right now. As far as explanation for Young Veggies and Schoolboy being left off… I have none. But like I previously stated, covering the Freshman issue has not really proven to correlate with career longevity and those guys will be just fine.
I am going to take a quick second to specifically congratulate Hopsin. He’s out there proving you really can do the damn thing solo if you just don’t seem to fit in anywhere else. If you missed my Artist of the Week post for him wayyy back in the day, catch that here.
Lastly, this gives me a good opportunity to throw in an Iggy Azalea pic. Happy Monday fellas.
