Freshmen Orientation
This is the part of the blog where I pretend my former quasi employers hold any relevance by breaking down XXL’s recently announced (sort of) Freshmen 10 list into some statistical ratings and snap judgements. But before we get into that, a couple quick notes:
- More than half these names were on that fake list that leaked a few months back. In fact, XXL has only officially announced four of these names. The rest have been leaked heavily. So if I’m jumping the gun I’ll be the gun jumper and if I’m wrong then I’ll be that too.
- Why don’t they just make it The Freshmen 15? That way it’d be an actual pun.
- No southern rappers from anywhere but Atlanta. Unless you count North Carolinian J. Cole and I don’t because Wikipedia tells me that he’s secretly German.
- Not one token New York rapper this year. The Statue of Liberty sheds a single tear.
- There has never been a Bay Area rapper on one of these things. #imjustsayin.
Fashawn
Ever since Blu squandered his buzz (and his Exile beats) in favor of dropping self produced 96kbps albums on his blog Fashawn has stepped in as the emcee whose (Exile produced) debut is heralded as THE NEXT ILLMATIC my misguided message boarders. His album definitely isn’t that but it’s grown on me a bit. And I’ve been told that his patterns is unmatched. He is also the only rapper on this list who isn’t and hasn’t ever been signed to a major label. You might recall that the rapper that held that distinction on the previous list was Blu. He is now signed to a major label.
Label: One
Last Year’s Parallel: Blu
# of Twitter followers: 4,937
Skills: 7/10
Marketability: Token backpack pick. Dude’s audience will never expand beyond the 2DopeBoyz comment section. Which is fine, I don’t think he aspires to more than that. 2/10
Sustainability: Exile is an outstanding producer, an emcee as skilled as Fashawn should be able to ride his beats into a long underground career. 8/10
Wiz Khalifa
Pittsburgh’s Wiz Khalifa was making great music five years ago but it took a pair of tiny pants to get him on the cover of XXL.
Label: Rostrum
# of Twitter Followers: 73,002 (!)
Last Year’s Parallel: Currensy
Skills: 7/10
Marketability: Even in his hipster zone Wiz has proven himself to have a great ear for beats, though his hook writing could stand some improvement. “Say Yeah” probably could have been a minor hit with the right push, I’m not sure how he ended up getting dropped from Warner. 7/10
Sustainability: How many shots can one kid get? Hopefully the Heinz factory still hiring. 4/10
Big Sean
GOOD Music signee from Detroit. Probably Kanye’s half cousin or something.
Label: GOOD/Def Jam
# of Twitter Followers: 23,800
Last Year’s Parallel: Kid Cudi
Skills: 5/10
Marketability: apart from himself and (arguably) Common, which was a career reboot, Kanye’s never backed marketable artists. But maybe Sean can get lucky eek out a single hit Cudi-style. 5/10
Sustainability: the people who still listen to GLC tapes today might remember him in 2012. 2/10
J. Cole
Drake 2.0.
Label: Roc Nation
Last Year’s Parallel: Asher Roth (I suspect that both of their careers were built from nothing but some sort of Duke & Duke style $1 TI bet.)
# of Twitter followers: 31,755
Skills: 4/10
Marketability: Drake 1.0 seems to sell records okay. We’ll see. 7/10
Sustainability: like Memphis Bleek before him, we only know his name because Jay-Z thinks he’s cute. If that relationship fizzles he’ll be right back to sending Eskay zshare links with email headers that say “used to know Jay-Z.” 3/10
Pill
The rise of Pill has been an odd one. He released a great mixtape of uncharacteristically lyrical Southern rap that was mostly ignored. Then he released a generic trap hop song that critics who usually ignore generic trap hop songs latched onto because it had a bunch of true to life crackheads in the video. Or a Beastie Boys sample. Or something, I don’t really understand the critical fawning over that song.
Label: Warner/Asylum
# of Twitter followers: 2,009
Skills: 7/10
Marketability: “Trap Goin’ Ham” is the closest thing to an actual hit anybody on this list not named after a citrus beverage has dropped and it was still pretty far from being an actual hit. He does use the word “trap,” and I’m told that the kids like that. 7/10
Sustainability: hard to say, the if he goes deeper into the trap he probably won’t last long. The blogeratti has a short term memory for drug dealers. If he goes lyrically lyrical he can probably maintain a decent fanbase, but that’ll obviously affect his marketability. 4/10
OJ Da Juiceman
Sort of a lob-ball cop out selection, the guy has already been on the cover of XXL! By all traditional standards he’s incapable of rapping well, but he’s a masterful adlibber.
Label: Warner/Asylum
Last Year’s Parallel: Ace Hood, I guess? I’m not really comfortable with accusing anybody of being Ace Hood.
# of Twitter followers: 7,283 (though there are multiple fake accounts, none of which live up to the potential that a fake OJ Da Juice Twitter account offers.)
Skills: 2/10
Marketability: Through the roof. He’s already a mid level rap star and should have been on last year’s list. Compare him to every other rapper here and note not what he doesn’t have (the aforementioned talent) but what he does. Personality, character, a unique style, star quality even. If you put all these other guys on a posse cut and stripped a few of them of their local accents I’d be hard pressed to ID them. 10/10
Sustainability: The shelf life of “Aye Okay” adlibs seem limited at best. He won’t be around next year. 3/10
Donnis
Donnis is an Atlanta rapper whose most viewed youtube video is one where he awkwardly pushes a drunk kid off the stage. Most of the comments are like “who the fuck is Donnis?” which, incidentally, is what I said when I first read this list. Turns out Donnis is like B.O.B., except with none of the qualities that make B.O.B. good or interesting. He just signed to Atlantic, which I’m sure had nothing to do with him landing this cover.
Label: Atlantic
Last Year’s Parallel: B.O.B.
# of Twitter followers: 1,577
Skills: 4/10
Marketability: he’s another one of those hybrid singer/rappers like Drake, which means that girls might like him. 6/10
Sustainability: dude has nothing to sustain. 2/10
Freddie Gibbs
Gibbs is probably the purest technical talent on this list. If I say anything more his manager is going to deem me unworthy of running interviews with convicts. Which means I’ll have to scrap the Lord 3-2 feature I had planned. Just kidding. I have no Lord 3-2 feature.
Label: Unsigned?
Last Year’s Parallel: Wale. Blog baiting by way of Rapidshare mixtapes.
Skills: 8/10
Marketability: let’s be real, dude was dropped from Interscope for a reason. Great and cohesive albums/tapes don’t make stars, hits do and Gibbs does not make hits. Thankfully, some might say. 3/10
Sustainability: fruitflies who never listened to Pac are already calling him the next Pac. He’s not that, but the misperception will surely guarantee him a spot on the Rock The Bells lineup until the day he dies. 9/10
Nipsey Hussle & Jay Rock
Did they purposely pick both a Crip and a Blood for this shit? Prison subscriptions must be lagging. They are both pretty good rappers, so I’m not complaining.
Label: Epic / Warner
Last Year’s Parallel: I don’t know there weren’t any Gangsta Rappers on the list last year.
# of Twitter Followers: 29,664 / 23,074
Skills: 6/10 for both.
Marketability: Only one new LA rapper has been able to sell records outside LA in this decade and even he can’t sell records anymore. Nipsey was on the “We Are The World” record for some reason, so he has that going for him. 3/10
Sustainability: West Coast rappers never die, they just sign to Koch. 8/10
February 16th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
“like Memphis Bleek before him, we only know his name because Jay-Z thinks he’s cute.” Oh shit this was hilarious.
So was the line about Pill being uncharacteristically lyrical..that same back-handed compliment he’s always getting from NMC.
I like Jay and Nipsey, Freddie Gibbs, Pill and Fashawn; the others haven’t left much of an impression on me. I’ve never heard of Donnis either.
February 16th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
J. Cole is really fucking good at rapping. It may outwardly appear as though he’s the exact same rapper as Drake but he’s actually not. He is good. His rap over “Royal Flush” and his verse on Talib Kweli’s new song with Mos and Jay Electronica are both excellent. Although I think Drake has his moments too so I don’t expect anybody to take my opinion seriously.
It saddens me that there is no Yelawolf. Yelawolf is fucking great and deserves to have whatever he wants to happen to him in his career, happen to him. I hope he can coax Bubba Sparxxx into making excellent music again, and then Burn One and Mr. DJ will give them beats, and Jim Jonsin will not, and that they will make rap music and that it will be awesome.
Also, there are an assload of rappers who deserve to be here but who never get any press from anybody but you and the odd other blogger who more or less shares your outlook on rap. Why no one outside your circle has noticed Doey Rock is beyond me. He is a beast and a ‘traditional lyricist’ of the kind that 2 Dope Boyz, Nah Right etc. would lose their shit over if they could be bothered to appraise themselves of his existence.
Were it not for your blog and others somewhat like it I would not know about Doey Rock, nor would I know about ST 2 Lettaz or G Mane or P. Dukes or Attitude or Whitefolkz or Kingpen Slim or Bear Witnez or Cyhi Da Prynce or Meek Millz or Velle Vel or Mikkey Halsted or Daddy-O or Stanza or Selfish or Starlito or or or. But I’m a pretty big fan of all of them, plus a bunch I’m forgetting, and it would have been nice to see a few of them on this list, especially considering how much better at rapping they all are than OJ Da Juiceman is. Kingpen Slim’s absence is particularly painful, given how much better he is than Wale.
I am guilty of being one of those who believes Freddie Gibbs is more or less exactly as good as his most hyperbolic supporters believe him to be, and I am content with being seen as misguided in this belief.
Donnis is fucking atrocious to the point of being literally frightening to listen to. BUT. He has stated his intention to bring about a Dungeon revival, and wishes to incorporate into his music much of the aesthetic that made the Dungeon great, or at least the signifiers thereof. I am almost looking forward to seeing whether he can pull this off. I will take some mournful spitting over third-rate retreads of the “Still Standing” or “Mainstream” beats if I can get it. That’s how much of a sucker I am for that sound.
February 16th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
One more thing: Big Sean. Big Sean is a problem for everybody. Not in the sense that a great rapper is a problem, in the sense that a disease or a grievous injury is a problem. As in, he is trauma-inducingly bad.
In fact, there is a shitty Mike Posner song from last year that, if you ask me, holds the distinction of having that year’s best and worst rap verses on it. One was by Freddie Gibbs, and the other was by Big Sean. (Apologies to the incredibleness of Killer Mike on “Street Cred” or whatever that song with Gucci and Drake was called.)
But I am an unapologetic Gibbs fanatic and I will also happily ride for Pill, J. Cole and Nipsey Hussle. Four out of ten is better than nothing.
February 16th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
J. Cole is a good rapper with potential. The Drake comparison is pretty superficial.
Gibbs is a good ass rapper. He’s following UGK and early Kast a little close now but I can see him growing into his own and being a significant artist.
February 16th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
man, really, noz im sad you have to pay attention to that shit.
also, do you guys REALLY like yelawolf all that much? i mean as far as i can tell its a bunch of lynyrd skynyrd and heart and the eagles done puffy style.
February 16th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
best cocaine blunts post in a minute. funny & on point
February 16th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
“Dude’s audience will never expand beyond the 2DopeBoyz comment section. Which is fine, I don’t think he aspires to more than that.”
Ha! Funniest post in a while.
Like the above comments I cosign the Cole Drake comparison bricking, at least on Warm Up he doesn’t even aspire to recreate that sound. Remember how Drake is just a composite of Wayne and Kanye? How many layers will this onion have? Cole doesn’t really sound anything like Wayne or Kanye, or Drake. If you needed to find a new cat to line him up next to you could do worse than Wale, but I’d go with Phonte, technically proficient, Golden Age oriented MC from NC who wishes he was from NY.
Cole has a pretty wide range but for some reason Im unable to articulate he bores me. Still, besides Pill & Gibbs he probably has the best shot at doing something post-this-cover. (Oj’s comparison to Ace Hood isn’t as off as you may believe it to be.)
February 16th, 2010 at 10:24 pm
“man, really, noz im sad you have to pay attention to that shit.”
Don’t be. It’s fun and makes me appreciate the shit I love even more.
I guess I’m misreading Cole? I was REALLY not impressed by his verse on the RE song and I’m scratching my head about how people are saying he had the best verse on there. To me his was like amateur moment. Say what you will about Mos and Kweli (and I do say what I will about both) but they are very distinctive rappers, they bring something to the table. I guess the thing that frustrates me about everyone on here except for Juice is that they really aren’t unique stylistically or vocally.
February 16th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
“also, do you guys REALLY like yelawolf all that much? i mean as far as i can tell its a bunch of lynyrd skynyrd and heart and the eagles done puffy style.”
This is an unfortunate misconception about Yela, I thought the same thing at first but when you strip all his good ole boy confederate flag imagery he’s just a purely great technical rapper. Listen to “Trunk Muzik.”
February 16th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
yelawolf’s problem is that his mixtape & song w/ juelz didn’t drop until jan of this year & obv this issue has been in production for much longer than that. none of this is surprising besides the lol inclusion of juiceman which seems like a throwback to the 07 issue which had boosie & dro & rich boy & other rappers with actual careers on it.
out of this group i think pill & nipsey have the most potential for profit if any of them do, altho nipsey might sound a bit too much like snoop for anyone to take him seriously on a large scale. pill could have a hit as long as he didn’t pull a wale and do a song with cool & dre and lady gaga and betray his fanbase for one that doesn’t exist yet. i see no reason why he couldn’t pull of a “rubber band man” or something.
they missed alley boy & someone from the bay — jacka is too old, so probably husalah then.
February 16th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Also supreme who the hell are Velle Vel and Selfish? I’m pretty sure I’ve never written about artists with those names, but I guess it’s possible?
February 16th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
It confuses me to see OJ Da Juiceman described as having “star quality,” or any quality for that matter. Best I can tell he got his shine secondhand off of Gucci and an awkward falsetto yelp.
I side with the Gibbs backers. I’m not gonna say “Next Pac!” or anything ridiculous like that – what the fuck does that even mean, you can’t have Tupac removed from his moment – but he definitely has an authoritative voice and is never dull.
Who the fuck is Donnis?
Nipsey hasn’t convinced me yet, despite the label push. He’s good but not special, and he’s going to need to line up with some stronger producers and songwriters if he’s going to make a dent.
I’m quite a booster of Jay Rock, though. He’s got a strong delivery and a good ear for beats. That “All My Life” track with Lil Wayne was pretty fantastic, at least before they replaced the original hook (which actually interacted with the melody line in the beat) with some Will.i.Am bullshit. I don’t think he’ll blow up – five years ago he could have, maybe, when LA gangsta was a bigger force and Aftermath released records. I do like him, though.
http://www.dubcnm.com/audio/2008/january/jay_rock_ft_lil_wayne-all_my_life-(dubcnn).mp3
The one who I think certainly WILL blow up is Yelawolf. He’s got that whiplash delivery that cuts through the mix, and – hello there – an actual understanding of pop songwriting. He’s easy to notice, and catches on the ear.
February 16th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
(though there are multiple fake accounts, none of which live up to the potential that a fake OJ Da Juice Twitter account offers.)- Way too funny
February 16th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Im kinda shocked Jay Electronica wasn’t included on here. Perhaps XXL was worried that getting more people excited for Act 2 would push it back even more.
I can assure you all that if Jay Rock or Nipsey manage to get any real success, it won’t be because of support from LA radio stations. MIA gets more spins than those dudes put together,
February 16th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
“West Coast rappers never die, they just sign to Koch.”
One of the funniest things I’ve ever heard.
February 16th, 2010 at 11:26 pm
“Im kinda shocked Jay Electronica wasn’t included on here. Perhaps XXL was worried that getting more people excited for Act 2 would push it back even more.”
Web rumors are saying that Jay, along with Drake and Nicki, all declined to participate. If this is true, it’s probably wise, all of them are/will be much bigger than any of these guys. Still it’d be a pretty depressing comment on the status of XXL.
February 16th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
I guess Nikki Minaj is the only NY rapper with legitimate buzz at the moment. That’s kinda amazing/scary.
February 17th, 2010 at 2:29 am
LOL oh shit man…Best post on here in a while…you basically shat on everyone(not that im into that sort of thing)….ayo you earned some paypal money from me for this post wheres the link?
but trust J.Cole is no Drake….he’s boring and has yet to make anything resembling a hit.
It seems like you only like rappers that become characters…well i wont say only…but exaggerated personalities seem to be your thing.
Damn besides Yelawolf is there any new comers you like and think will be able to have some mainstream success? you shat on everybody!
And when the hell is Plies’ album droppin I been waitin on that for a while, aint shit to listen to….Jeezy and T.i. been MIA and teflon don not comin til later…and wheres Lupe?
February 17th, 2010 at 3:27 am
Effing hilarious.
February 17th, 2010 at 4:37 am
Really suprised they didn’t have Minaj or even someone like Red Cafe or Vado as the token NY pick.
One thing that seperates most of the freshman rappers and Bay rappers, is that while the former spend 2 years dropping digi-mixtapes to build up to a major label album which never come out or flops, Bay rappers will spent the same 2 year period dropping 2 real albums and a collaboration album with someone to build up up a proper fanbase.
February 17th, 2010 at 5:42 am
I’m surprised to see anyone putting Jay Rock over (or even on the same level) as Nipsey. Is it that you just prefer lower pitched voices?
Nipsey, imo, is actually perhaps the L.A. gangsta rapper with the most star-potential since (yeah) Snoop.
February 17th, 2010 at 5:46 am
“One thing that seperates most of the freshman rappers and Bay rappers, is that while the former spend 2 years dropping digi-mixtapes to build up to a major label album which never come out or flops, Bay rappers will spent the same 2 year period dropping 2 real albums and a collaboration album with someone to build up up a proper fanbase.”
true. this also has to do with the Bay not being very interested in blowing up outside the Bay, which is one of the main reasons the Bay has such a strong scene.
February 17th, 2010 at 6:05 am
Agreed OJ has star quality. How else could he get away with repeatedly calling his swag fruity, not being able to rap, an accent indecipherable to anyone outside the South and having the worst mixed/mastered song to ever make it to radio. He’ll pull off at least one more hit.
Yelawolf is the best new rapper I’ve heard in a while. He’ll is better and will be around longer than anybody on the list. Probably won’t have mainstream success though but can have a Tek 9 like career if he chooses.
Not impressed by J-Cole yet. I feel Jay Rock. He speaks with conviction and is a good rapper. I’d rather Jay Rock make an album with Exile than Fashawn.
I like Roach Gigz out the bay but Bay rappers don’t seem to want to be national. Probably won’t make anymore money that way.
February 17th, 2010 at 8:23 am
J Cole is a beast. I slept initially when I heard the come up, but the warm up is dope as hell. dude can really spit. Think you should re visit. Losing my balance is a great track that displays his abilities imo… the first verse is similar to a modern ‘black girl lost’
definitely better than bleek. i dont know that he’s the heir to the throne, but the jay co sign wasnt for nothing.
February 17th, 2010 at 9:51 am
i still can’t take your criticisms seriously after you co-signed lil B
February 17th, 2010 at 10:18 am
“or even someone like Red Cafe”
Freshman? Dude is on that eight year doctorate combo program shit.
“It seems like you only like rappers that become characters…well i wont say only…but exaggerated personalities seem to be your thing.”
Well from a strictly marketing perspective, these are the rappers who sell records. For the most part.
“i still can’t take your criticisms seriously after you co-signed lil B”
You should start reading the words I write.
February 17th, 2010 at 10:59 am
Freshman? Dude is on that eight year doctorate combo program shit.
Yeah, but so is Wiz.
February 17th, 2010 at 11:22 am
^^^ u have a point
February 17th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
“I’m surprised to see anyone putting Jay Rock over (or even on the same level) as Nipsey. Is it that you just prefer lower pitched voices?
Nipsey, imo, is actually perhaps the L.A. gangsta rapper with the most star-potential since (yeah) Snoop.”
…because obviously no LA gangstas went platinum since 1993? The Game only moved seven million or so, not sufficient?
Nipsey is a good rapper but he doesn’t have very much charisma or a particularly interesting delivery. He also doesn’t put much effort into beat selection as far as I can tell. Between those problems, he’s fucked. He plays like a post-millennial off-brand Snoop, which is pretty much how he seems to be perceived. He could last for a while as a regional figure, but I can’t imagine him getting a national audience.
February 17th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
…Velle Vel is the first rapper on that Run Minnesota joint.
February 17th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
ok, ok, im listening to trunk muzik and its dope as fuck. but what the fuck did i previously download where every track was a reuse of some ‘now thats what i call southern rock’ anthem?
really tho, specifically my box chevy, that shit is trunk muzik for shore. this is the first good twista album in like 12 years.
February 17th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
I listened to the J. Cole and Fashawn tapes twice through and enjoyed them enough, but I never really needed to return for a third listen. I’ve bumped a few Gibbs tracks on serious repeat (I lean toward the more gothic ones–”Cradle to the Grave,” “The Wrong One”), but I couldn’t get more than halfway though his tape. I’m not sure why. I got real excited about Pill when “Trap Goin’ Ham” dropped, too, but I thought his tape was basically unlistenable. OJ is terrible, but then again, I can’t really tell the difference between him and Gucci–and I don’t really have the time or desire to learn what the difference is.
J. Cole’s verse on that RE track is completely out of place, and easily the weakest thing I’ve heard from him. Even Kweli sounded better, which is a phrase I’ve never said or typed before. But dude has serious writing skills, though he’s not really that attention-grabbing unless you get excited about lyrical concept tracks that unfold damn-near-flawlessly. And I do, generally. But still, I didn’t last past two listens.
Yelawolf’s tape is the only album–hip-hop or otherwise–that I keep returning to over the past few months. Sure, I skip over a few of the songs (the Raekwon track is kind of embarrassing to me, actually, along with Fuck You) but the rest stand up under repeated listens. Most of them get better. And I haven’t said or typed that in about a rap record in several years.
February 17th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Drug Flower: most of Yela’s back catalogue is sorta wince-worthy. Except for a couple tracks on “Ball of Flames”–namely ‘Doughnuts’ and ‘Run’–it’s best to act like it never happened.
February 17th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
mayn noz not ta rehash dis argument i think you sellin Gibbs short due to all de love he gettin. Iss not “probaly” the best dude on de list he far an away betta den de othaz no shots. Dude is straight up murdering every verse he spits right now an sumtimez iss really juss dat simple.
February 17th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
freddie gibbs>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> everybody else on here and you know its truuee noz
pill is tight 2, i need 2 check out more fashawn, but as far as im concerned, gibbs has been the only one in which Ive heard one song, than wanted to listen 2 more and more until i got an album
y isnt j elec on this list?
February 17th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
I’ll take Juiceman over half this list. AYE!
February 17th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
I have to say I’ve been trying to give Yelawolf a chance. The beats on the Burn One mixtape arent that bad but his cadence is like… Twista-esque double timing circa 96 mixed with pinched overly encuitated early Evalast white boy flow from when Evalast was down with Ice T… don’t really see the appeal
February 17th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
-Here, for those who have been asking, is Donnis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MgYXsGmKnc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyqOePFQk3E
I can’t listen to him for very long or my ears get angry at me. But I’d be happy to be proven wrong about him because I am hungry for a Dungeon revival and I’ll ride for him if he makes a successful enough attempt at it. We’d prolly be good to go if the cats in CunninLynguists were tolerable rappers but I can’t endure the pain of listening to them. So someone good better do something soon. I’d like to do it myself, I’m dying to rap on Dungeon/UGK-sounding beats and make indelible music over them. But I’m white and from Canada so that’s a long shot to say the least.
-Velle Vel and Selfish were the cats who had the two genuinely dope verses on that “Run Minnesota” posse cut you put up however long ago. Velle Vel went first and had the blazing fast-rap. Selfish went third and sounded like a cold, calculating crime boss type, and had an excellent fast bit near the end of his verse that reminded me of Busta Rhymes on “Hurt”. “We gon’ have e’ry one o’ you motherfuckers duckin’ an’ runnin’ for cover this year…”
-I’m with the ‘Yelawolf is fantastic’ crowd. I think he’s way better than Everlast has ever been, and I have no idea why anyone wouldn’t be down to hear more folks rapping like Twista. I love that shit. Yela’s verses on “Good To Go” and the “I Wish” remix are fuckin’ stellar. And “Deer Mama”… shit, man. I’m enthusiastic about a shit-ton of rappers who are around now (I forgot Homebwoi and Max Minelli to name only a few), but aside from Gibbs there’s no one else I’m this enthusiastic about.
-I agree with P-417 about Nipsey. When I heard “Hussle In The House” I thought I’d heard a bona fide anthem. Upon examining the criticisms folks have, most of them are pretty sound, especially regarding beat selection. But I’m optimistic. I feel like he’s essentially the rapper people seem to be convinced Game is, i.e. he could well turn the West back into something that means something. (I find Jay Rock completely unlistenable, at least so far, but I’m finna peep that Wayne collaboration afore I pass further judgment.)
-I’m turning into a pretty devoted Pill fan, I feel like if you combined the best of his recent output onto one tape it’d be a classic no questions asked. Money has released at least an album’s worth of amazing songs. I’d really like to see him make a “Rubber Band Man”, he’s an engaging enough personality to do all right in the mainstream and he deserves a long career.
-I suspect MF is right about why there’s no Bay presence. I mean, aside from the fact that no one at XXL seems to care about or understand the scene.
-Am I the only regular CB reader who likes Nicki Minaj? Enough to wish she were on here instead of Big Sean or whoever, that is? A random person I know from the Internet (Noz knows him too, cat’s name is Barry something) put it perfectly: she sounds like she’s having a blast. And her guest spot on No Ceilings was fucking cold. I feel like half her bars are cliché but the other half are dope, and she’s enjoyable enough to be worth riding for despite the schtick and/or the problematic elements of her success. Which is also roughly how I feel about Drake.
-Joell Ortiz suggested they pick Brother Ali for one of these things. Good for Joell Ortiz!
February 17th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
“Really suprised they didn’t have Minaj or even someone like Red Cafe or Vado as the token NY pick.”
Isn’t Vado that guy who Cam gets to rap with him nowadays so he can show that there’s still one guy left in the world whom he can rap better than?
February 17th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
im w/ jojoba about yelawolf. hes talented/skilled but im not really too engaged by his output & i think his whiteness is making up for other character deficiencies in terms of marketability. related: was paul wall really better than magno?
oj’s career is so boring now — he was never able to sustain recording 300 guest verses per year like gucci. but i still think his asylum record & the mixtapes that came out before it were fun enough, decent records from a medium-talent strong character rapper whose career would have been a lot better off if he was slept on for awhile nationally. give him a chance to develop some more lyrical ideas etc. hes certainly the most immediately engaging dude here.
i dont really get whats wrong w/ liking rappers who are characters. thats called being engaging. the kind of ppl who hate on characters are the kinds of folks who trashed too $hort for rapping slow.
February 17th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
There’s nothing wrong with liking characters…especially in art….All of the rappers I like at the moment are characters…Gucci, Rawse, Plies, Wayne(when he’s not sucking), Lupe(he’s his own type of braniac character…sorry if thats a terrible description), Drake(despite the kanye/wayne hybrid clone criticisms) even Nicki Minaj is likeable when shes at her “weirdest”(theres something cute about the way she raps..like she’s gonna start pouting like a little girl at any second), Kanye, Jeezy, T.I……JayZ(although i dont know how much of a character he his)
Characters are engagin….people like characters…a certain tv station that slips my mind at the moment has a whole marketing campaign based on having the best “characters”….people like to feel like they’re getting to know the person they’re listening to….its hard to relate to a Fabolous, who is personality-less zombie when he raps(though if you like that type of rapper, nothing wrong with that either)…it also gets boring…nothing wrong with characters.
(most parentheses(?) ever)
February 18th, 2010 at 12:14 am
i think fabo is way more of a character than drake — drake is just .. wayne + kanye. + a lil faux will smith movie dude swagger. fabo is a super-relaxed chill clever dude who is too cool to move the fitted hat from above his half-lidded eyes.
February 18th, 2010 at 2:07 am
Drake raps like Kanye without the anger or the wit – a Kanye punchline is a horrible pun or weird reference that he somehow magically pulls off, a Drake punchline is just a douchey joke.
I hope Nicki blows up proper, partly for sheer absurdity. It is nice to have a woman on a rap song who is going for weird rather than sexy, though.
February 18th, 2010 at 3:10 am
Nikki Minaj is probably the rapper I’m most excited about in 2010 and most likely to be let down by as well.
I’m half in agreement with David about Yela’s whiteness making up for something–though I’m not terribly sure what yet. I think the fact that that tape was so short was a really great way to build hype for dude without bombarding us with material. The thing about Yela’s flow is that yes it’s incredibly impressive at times, but it’s also fairly hard to digest in large doses. I hope as more material surfaces, he finds a way to show some diversity a la E-40 and doesn’t turn into this one-trick fast-rapping technical wizard like Twista has basically become.
Lastly, I saw a clip of Yela on youtube skating at Rob Dyrdek’s fantasy factory and I’m extremely happy to report he doesn’t look unconvincingly awkward on a skateboard like Lupe does. Yela even pulled off a perfectly reasonable crooked grind on a ledge. HE’S KEEPING IT REAL!
Oh yeah… I fucking love the “Lights Please” beat.
-e
February 18th, 2010 at 3:15 am
Who & What the fuck is this?
http://i50.tinypic.com/nlya2p.jpg
February 18th, 2010 at 3:40 am
I swear people who hate on OJ never heard Hood Classics or The Come up mixtapes, the shit he doing now hella more generic I agree, but dudes music entertains, if you wanna cry and go kill yourself, there’s plenty of NYC content for that.
p.s. Fuck XXL you’re magazine has had it’s dick up NYC for years, time to get it out!
February 18th, 2010 at 4:06 am
I like Nikki Minaj when she’s on. Does that make me a Ken?
February 18th, 2010 at 4:44 am
I don’t think Yela really needs to make up for anything with his whiteness. What does it change? The guy kills it, and can do a hell of a lot more than Twista-style quadruple-time.
“Confederate flags I’m seeing
On a truck with the windows down, why’s he playing Beanie Sigel?
‘Cause his daddy was a dopeman
Lynyrd Skynyrd didn’t talk about moving keys of coke, man
Ain’t no such thing as a free bird”
I mean, I’m sold. That’s brilliant.
February 18th, 2010 at 8:26 am
Gibbs’ “How We Do” 93-til song is a better sensitive-ass Drake song than anything Drake (or any of these other clowns) ever wrote. Every lovelorn high school kid should be falling all over it a la Passin’ Me By. It’s too bad we live in a Bizarro alternate universe in which it isn’t marketable (I’m still hopeful).
February 18th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
I like the Yelawolf tape a lot, but this is actually the most cringeworthy moment on it:
“Confederate flags I’m seeing
On a truck with the windows down, why’s he playing Beanie Sigel?
‘Cause his daddy was a dopeman
Lynyrd Skynyrd didn’t talk about moving keys of coke, man
Ain’t no such thing as a free bird”
February 18th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
I made a Freshman XXL mixtape:
http://athousandgrams.com/a_thousand_grams/2010/02/atg-presents-social-justice-committee-mixtape.html
February 18th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
I don’t think “Yela’s whiteness is making up for something”…it’s more that he’s actually drawing energy from his whiteness and if you don’t like whiteness in your rap music because you are self-loathing, it’s gonna bother you. The other side of the coin with that is — the whiteness is a little lame on occasion- F.U. is basically an Against Me! folk punk-esque chant song. Dorky.
Faux is missing the point because he’s being faux-anti-intellectual.
I’d argue that the problem with Yela is more that as weird as he is he’s still dependent on a lot of more annoying cliches like sex-rap songs. This being where the tape fails…for example, “Lick the Cat” could be good but it’s a little too much.
More tracks/album cuts like “love is not enough” is the direction I’m pulling for…
February 18th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Cringeworthy? “Ain’t no such thing as a free bird” is a clever punchline that ties together the entirety of the preceding statement. It’s a complex set-up. It’s awesome.
“Lick The Cat” completely fails because A) rap songs about cunnilingus are almost always awful and B) the chorus is terrible and goes on waaaaay too long.
I think my favorite cut off Trunk Muzik might be “Stage Lights (remix).” Or “Pop The Trunk.”
February 18th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
-”I don’t think Yela’s whiteness is making up for anything. It’s more that he’s actually drawing energy from his whiteness. And if you don’t like whiteness in your rap music, because you are self-loathing, it’s gonna bother you.”
Yes. Thank you. But the ‘other side of the coin’ is also definitely true. And the sex-rap songs are awful.
-”Drake raps like Kanye without the anger or the wit – a Kanye punchline is a horrible pun or weird reference that he somehow magically pulls off, a Drake punchline is just a douchey joke.”
I disagree.
First, because I think Drake punchlines are sometimes effective, and that Drake in general is a substantially better rapper than he’s given credit for in some circles — not fantastic, but solid, good at creating a sense of emotional tension, and the fact that he’s this narcissistic supercilious privileged dude who still has all this emotional baggage and claims the right to express it makes for a compelling dynamic. I don’t think he knows he’s an interloper, which is a problem. But I think he’s genuinely good at rapping, for the most part, which makes me want to forgive him for the potentially catastrophic results when he helps Noz’s ‘rap gentrification’ argument come to life.
And second, I just think Kanye is an irredeemably terrible rapper. In fact, I’m pretty sure the only two solo Kanye songs Noz said he liked (”Flashing Lights” and “All Falls Down”) are the only two I’ve ever liked either. I think he’s hoooooooribble, and if I recall correctly, this used to be seen as the common-sense understanding, more or less. Is that no longer the case?
February 18th, 2010 at 7:25 pm
mayn yall need ta argue bout obvious shit less and listen ta Ro more.
Yelawolf iz killin it mayn. nuff sed.
I like Kanye rappin iss funny sumtimez
February 18th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
yela is just putting it too far into our faces. i dont like that freebird line. its like hes saying 100s of times ‘look im white and im rapping well. get over it’.
because i dont like people who are ‘overcoming’ their shit. and rap and rap and rap about it. ‘wish a muhfucka would say i aint hip hop’. thats irritating. i also dont like rappers who are constantly rapping about how they are rapping. or who rap about how they arent rapping about coke. just fuckin rap. if you arent from my neighborhood i probably wont feel your ideology.
February 18th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
“I don’t think “Yela’s whiteness is making up for something”…it’s more that he’s actually drawing energy from his whiteness and if you don’t like whiteness in your rap music because you are self-loathing, it’s gonna bother you.”
um sorry i call bullshit — thats a strawman argument. no one here said anything about his whiteness ‘making up for something’ within the music itself, im talking about ppl’s response to him & how they’re willing to make a bunch of assumptions w/r/t his character just because he stands out in a crowd the way he does. i have nothing against white rappers who can rap & dug Em for awhile & Bubba & Lil Wyte & fuck the beastie boys too. But I dont think its arguable that if a black dude dropped that record, i doubt it would be getting the same amount of attention. That doesnt mean I dislike the record, or even think it doesnt deserve the attention its getting. but yall really need to chill with the fucking psychological analysis of ppl you’re misinterpreting over the internet & actually respond to the points made w/in the discussion
February 18th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
“and the fact that he’s this narcissistic supercilious privileged dude who still has all this emotional baggage and claims the right to express it makes for a compelling dynamic.”
this is worse than ppl who thought The Game crying over Dr. Dre made for ‘compelling’ music
February 18th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
basically with yelawolf i dont think hes really expressing ‘character’ the way someone like bubba sparxx did — hes a lot more technical & removed from that … so people are reading ‘personality’ into his rapping that is a bit more distant & might be more related to his image outside of his musical performance
February 19th, 2010 at 9:44 am
Are we really getting into questioning Kanye as a rapper? What is this, 2004?
He’s one of the most interesting and compelling dudes on the mic. It’s straight passion and emotion; no one is more convicted. It just bleeds. That’s why he connects on such a large scale.
He’s also, far and away, the best rap live performer OF ALL TIME.
February 19th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Stalin
February 19th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Ramon you are very funny.
February 19th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
“This is worse than ppl who thought The Game crying over Dr. Dre made for ‘compelling’ music.”
It might have if Game could rap. It was bitching, and I hated it, but virtually anything can be compelling if you do it well enough and/or your take on it is original enough.
Drake can, which is why he can pull off most (not all) of what he’s trying to do, and is also why I can enjoy the rapping even when the sense of entitlement becomes irritating. “Fear” is a great song.
Kanye can’t rap, not to my ears. Listening to him is almost physically painful. I can tolerate Drake’s rapping more, even though there’s substantially more to object to about Drake as a popular phenomenon, how he perceives himself, etc.
Basically I am defending Drake mostly because he has an occasional idea that resonates with me, and because I am sometimes impressed by the way he puts words together. This never occurs for me with Kanye, ever.
February 19th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
“I hope Nicki Minaj blows up proper. It is nice to have a woman on a rap song who is going for weird rather than sexy.”
I think she’s going for both at once. Which is at once inspired and calculated. But it works, because she’s fun.
February 19th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
“Faux is missing the point because he’s being faux-anti-intellectual.”
I haven’t voiced an opinion on “the point” of that couplet, so how do you know I’m “missing” it?
February 19th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Noz, can you actually give me one actual, concrete reason why you have a problem with Gangsta Gibbs other than “other blog sites fuck with him?”
JihaD
February 19th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
I don’t have a problem with Gibbs.
February 19th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
then why dont you think hes the next coming of tupac?
February 19th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
I like Fashawn. The album isn’t great, but Life As a Shorty and Samsonite Man are very good. To make this vid with Evidence is bad. Evidence sucks and this verse is bad even for him. Off the top like a toupee? That was overused back in 95… But I will def check for Fashawn’s next release. I also like J Cole. Lights Please is a decent song. It is listenable if not spectacular. I like his voice too. I don’t think he could ruin a track. I am not feeling the rest of these joints… I’ve never heard a Wiz joint that moved me, and I’ve tried. Same with OJ…
February 19th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
I don’t have a problem with Gibbs.
^^^
My mistake, then. It just seems that, once I pierced thru the satire, you seemed to come down on that man kind of harsh. The comment about Interscope dropping him was invalid, as in his interview with Curtis’ website, he mentions that Interscope never gave him any help in developing songs, writing hooks, etc– they basically put him in a room and told him to write music. I found that answer extremely revealing, as pretty much every artist on this cover (and most of the ones on the last one) need help structuring and developing songs that people outside of the blogs/friends/etc will like.
And David, he isn’t the next coming of MC New York–and we are all the better for it.
JihaD
February 20th, 2010 at 12:31 am
Nobody really flows much different anymore. I understand that people don’t really wanna hear that freestyle shit anymore. But come on. I was just bumpin’ Casual – fear itself today and was thinking “fuck, 1993…he doesn’t even rhyme this tight anymore.” Freestyle Fellowship ..same thing. Even e-40 hasn’t been flexin his flows and using them raw stinky beats. Everyone more or less sounds good- but formulaic. The 3 I sign onto here are Gibbs, Nipsey, and Jay rock.
February 20th, 2010 at 5:21 am
since when have underground rappers wanted help from labels to help them write songs
February 20th, 2010 at 5:22 am
i mean, they’ve wanted that forever, but from a defensive perspective thats corny
February 20th, 2010 at 10:01 am
I once downloaded a Wiz Khalifa mixtape b/c I thought he looked cute on the cover(it was Burn After Rolling, I think he half-assed that Burn After reading-parody in a very adorable way). It was aight.
re: Yela: “But I dont think its arguable that if a black dude dropped that record, i doubt it would be getting the same amount of attention.”
This is of course true. But then again: it also wouldn’t be the same record if a black dude had done it.
(btw David I liked your J Stalin review in Pitchfork, did you catch Stalin brag on twitter about how his Pitchfork review was better than Freeways and that maybe Jay-Z should have signed him instead?)
February 20th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
since when have underground rappers wanted help from labels to help them write songs? i mean, they’ve wanted that forever, but from a defensive perspective thats corny.
^^^
I mean, Freddie (in interviews) comes off as someone genuinely interested in his craft– the actual process of creating songs and having a good body of work. This is rare when you listen to a lot of new artists (i.e., most of the artists on this list). I mean, wasn’t that one of the purposes of A & R departments– Artist development??? I mean, would you have known he was signed to Interscope before he told you? Why is that? The answer lies in exactly what Andrew said: “He can’t write catchy songs.” Freddie is one of those artists who would benefit from somebody like a 50 Cent to take him under the wing (if he was generally interested in blowing up), as that is pretty much the type of music Freddie likes to make.
JihaD
February 20th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Ok, so I see yall seem to place Gibbs above the rest of the pack… And I must say that Boxframe mixtape was pretty impressive.
From my perspective (and I’m a white dude from Paris, France trying to keep up with all these new artists), I think they missed on Alley Boy and Big KRIT. What yall think ? Any other names they left out ?
February 21st, 2010 at 1:06 pm
Haven’t really paid much attention to Alley Boy, but I definitely kept Big KRIT’s ‘Last King’ in rotation for a while.
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Jay Electronica has never been mentioned in either last years or this years list and he just dropped Exhibit C which is getting more radio play and lyrical praise then anything on this list above. Give props where props belong.
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Lil B
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:02 pm
This is all very well put. Noz column I mean, not the comments.
February 24th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
This post was hysterical.
Way more hysterical was “Faux_Rillz” trying to sound smart on the internet, and using the poetic term “couplet” when nothing he was talking about was presented in couplet form.
February 28th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
I’ve always felt that being on these “Top 10″ type list is the kiss of death. Much better to no let them see you coming and keep expectations low.
Having said that, “Trap/Crack” Rap is so cliche and played out I just can’t figure out who got the green light to sign a mediocre goon like PILL. Most these “Hood Star” rappers are local mixtape level at best and have no mainstream appeal. I mean isn’t the reality that little Black boys in the hood can grow up and become POTUS while the fantasy is they can become the next Nino Brown?
Btw, what is the unofficial age limit to be considered a “freshman”???
Out of FLORIDA, check out LAWS…The Justus League just scooped him up and he’s nice all around and marketable!
June 17th, 2010 at 2:19 am
WIZ UR A FAG!!!
AND U PAID FOR YA BROTHERS SEX CHANGE!!!!