RSSMay 15, 2009
XXL Apologizes For Freshman 10
It’s a few months late, but the magazine finally makes their formal amends to the actual rap listeners of the world. I guess blog buzz wasn’t shredding newsstands. (via RR)
Related: MGG comments on the cover.
22 Comments, Comment or Ping
ANU
related : http://trapsntrunks.com/?p=2336
May 15th, 2009
ANU
too bad young dro isn’t on it though.
May 15th, 2009
p-417
let the haters hate, and watch the money pile up
May 15th, 2009
wes
a 2009 rap magazine cover reflecting 2009 rap? wow.
May 15th, 2009
mush
can’t believe they didn’t put Juelz on the cover
May 15th, 2009
jordan s
lol @ shawty lo being on this
also lol @ them choppin oj’s neck off so he’d fit on the cover. embarrassing photoshopping.
May 15th, 2009
noz
“too bad young dro isn’t on it though.”
Something tells me Dro’s employer might not take too kindly to him sharing a cover with a few of these guys.
May 15th, 2009
Chef Rae
I like how XXL had to put big ass name-tags on these dudes, while it put little tiny ass ones that blended in on the freshman 10.
May 15th, 2009
D.O.
It seems like Shawty looks older and creepier every day.
May 16th, 2009
cocaine hyacinth
wait a minute
is that tattoo on gucci hand
sposed to be gucci links?
cause that would make me like him
May 17th, 2009
Supreme Neck Protector
Here’s what I would do — take Gucci off this cover and put him on the old one with the cats from the old one who were good at rapping. Tto my mind, Blu, B.o.B. and Cory Gunz all get busy, and I guess there’s a case to be made for one or two of the other guys. Then I would stick in some of the cats from the mock 2007-8 one you made, like Boosie and Peedi and Mitchy an’ them, and a few of the dudes you been writin’ about on this blog like Daddy-O and G-Side and Jay E… and then we’d have an accurate representation of the illest new rap motherfuckers around, Some of the blog-buzz rappers deserve the shine, and some don’t. Not all hipster rappers are created equal.
Oh and where the FUCK is Playboy Tre on any “Here’s the greatest new rap motherfuckers” cover? He’s head and shoulders above practically anybody. Folks need to recognize.
Gucci deserves the shine, and I don’t know much about OJ Da Juiceman, but nothing in the world is going to convince me that either Soulja Boy or Shawty Lo is presently good at rapping. Like you said in the “Yuuugggh” post, anyone can improve, but seriously, come on.
May 17th, 2009
Supreme Neck Protector
Fucc all this shit — let Blu show up to do a little stuntin’ on a Gucci record (or, better, something bv someone more acceptable to the true-school heads, let’s say T.I.), and then the reverse. Contra Stakes is High, the mainstream/underground, conscious/gangsta, real/fake line in the sand shouldn’t exist.
Left-field link-ups and real-recognize-real sessions that break region- or subgenre-based barriers are good for hip-hop. Lil’ Wayne + Little Brother, Trae + Jadakiss, Luda + DJ Premier, Freeway + Brother Ali/Jake One, Red & Mef going dumb with Bun B on a Southern-sounding banger, Bun B working with whoever the hell he feels like regardless of sect… all of this is the best possible thing for hip-hop.
I want a Red & Mef guest shot on the next T.I. album. Or a Black Milk beat, or a three-man face-off with Crooked I and Royce Da 5′9″, or somesuch. Introduce Tip to this music if he hasn’t heard it, then let him make every single a big-money pop move (knowing him they’ll all still be great rap songs) and let him sneak a collaboration or two with some vets or underground motherfuckers deep among the album cuts. I’m of the opinion that every rap motherfucker who has the money and influence to consider doing this, should do it. Young guns should reach out to the dopest of the old guard, and the older gods should stop bitching and get to making great rap music with anyone who’ll fuck with ‘em, new or not, like a cross-regional version of the beautiful NY unity you highlighted in that great post last year about the Dips / Lox / AZ / M.O.P alliance that was going on.
Rap cats should be brave enough to do these things on the regular. There is no way the music wouldn’t be even better. Do it right, and there’s no money loss involved. And the only reason it’s seen as utopian impossibility is that no one’s really made the effort to sincerely try it.
May 17th, 2009
noz
“Lil’ Wayne + Little Brother, Trae + Jadakiss, Luda + DJ Premier, Freeway + Brother Ali/Jake One, Red & Mef going dumb with Bun B on a Southern-sounding banger,”
I don’t think any of these records were very good.
May 17th, 2009
no
Yeah I’m not for all that subgenre splicing, only when it happens naturally, but Just Blaze was saying he had TI & Jay Electronica in the studio together. That could be good. Mos Def was there too but uh..
May 17th, 2009
BENJY
god, rap sucks haha
May 21st, 2009
Supreme Neck Protector
“I don’t think any of these records were very good.”
I liked most of them. Some of them weren’t great. But I love the idea in principle and I think it should keep happening. Gucci Mane recently got at Raekwon on Twitter and asked that they make a song together. I want that to happen.
May 21st, 2009
Supreme Neck Protector
Basically I take the utopian view that every dope rapper should work with every other dope rapper of whom he is a fan, damn all barriers to hell, real or percieved, whether based on region or subgenre or what.
And that actively includes the older gods. ‘Face and 40 and Bun and Big Boi still going strong and Andre showing up out of nowhere to kill shit for 32 bars is not enough. I still care about the New York old guard goddamnit! To my ears, Red, Mef, Starks, Chef, G Rap, AZ, and Dres (Black Sheep) can all still rap their asses off, to name only a few I can think of off the top of my head. I want all of them to go on neverending cameo blitzes and make records with everyone from Gucci to Slaughterhouse and back again.
And I want both Lil’ Wayne’s next album and T.I.’s next album to feature DJ Premier beats. I oppose the view presently coming into vogue that says Primo no longer makes excellent beats. He has a few that are just all right here and there, but “That White” for Fat Joe and “Grand Royal” for C-N-N and “Watch How It Go Down” for that one Latino kid were all lose-your-shit outstanding beats. And just because the Luda / Primo collab didn’t work doesn’t mean he shouldn’t keep reaching out of his comfort zone and lacing interesting rappers.
May 21st, 2009
Supreme Neck Protector
T.I. & Jay Elect = perfect example of what rap needs, as long as Tip doesn’t do some dumb shit like try to sing again. That Rakim & Juelz Santana record Ra was threatening to make back when the Dips were a going concern coulda been cool as well.
And Mos Def can still rap! Sort of. See: “The Corner” remix with Common and Scarface, or that lost Black Star cut “Supreme Supreme” from around the time of The Beautiful Struggle, or “Wylin’ Out” with Diverse, a hyperintelligent, super-eloquent, somehow-not-pretentious rapper from Chicago who has an album called One A.M. which is the best goddamn traditionalist underground rap record I’ve ever heard. Even the “I’m mad at rappers for caring about money more than artistry” song is awesome! If you can make a song with that central thesis that is not unbearable, you are winning.
Mos will probably never record anything as remarkable as Black On Both Sides, but we shouldn’t forget how amazing the rapping was on that album and on his parts of Black Star. He never lost the gift entirely. It’s just his head’s up his ass and it’s unlikely he’ll ever get it out.
May 21st, 2009
noz
“Gucci Mane recently got at Raekwon on Twitter”
Gucci Mane’s on Twitter?!?!!
May 21st, 2009
Supreme Neck Protector
@imradricdavis.
May 21st, 2009
noz
“Radric Davis, better known by his stage name Gucci Mane, is an American rapper.”
I call bullshit.
May 21st, 2009
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