S. Samuel
G.O.O.D. Music's Big Sean has weighed in on the forthcoming annual XXL Freshmen list and gave his opinion of the artists he feels deserves a spot on this year's cover.
In addition to naming his fave fellow newcomers, Sean also gave advice to all of the incoming “freshmen”.
“My advice to the 2011 [XXL] Freshmen class is just use it to your advantage, man. Don’t be lazy, get off your a**. That’s the biggest. When you’re a rapper and on the come-up, you dream about having a platinum record. You dream about — getting signed, you dream about being on the covers of magazines, so that’s one of the biggest accomplishments of all-time, of my life. So man, take that sh*t for what it is. Do what it do, man. You earn that sh*t so congratulations…If I could nominate 2011 [XXL Freshmen], it would be Chip Tha Ripper, Kendrick Lamar, SayItAintTone, a whole bunch of people.” (Janicella Moca)
Last year, Young Money’s Jae Millz heated up debate by questioning 2010’s XXL Freshmen list.
“I don’t feel no sort of way about me not being in the Top 10 but can’t no n*gga tell me that my n*gga Vado ain’t supposed to be on that cover or on the flip cover of that XXL Top 10 Freshmen issue,” Millz said in an interview. “Can’t nobody tell me that, and if you do want to argue with me, you can argue with me about anything because I only know five n*ggas out of the ten n*ggas on that cover. And my ears [are] to the streets…I’m not even gonna say the name of the n*ggas I know, that’s gonna single n*ggas out or whatever, but n*ggas know whose supposed to be on that cover and n*ggas know who ain’t supposed to be on that f*cking cover.” (“True Stories Radio”)
Last year’s “freshmen” included J. Cole, Nipsey Hu$$le, Jay Rock and more.
The new breed of hustlers includes: Roc Nation’s first signee J. Cole, gangsta rap up-and-comer Nipsey Hu$$le, newly-minted Asylum lyricist Pill, 1017 Brick Squad member OJ Da Juiceman, indie-sensation Wiz Khalifa, G.O.O.D. Music’s own Big Sean, underground favorite Fashawn, Gary, Indiana rep Freddie Gibbs, West Coast phenom Jay Rock and the latest addition to the Atlantic roster, Donnis. (XXL Mag)
Last year, Young Money’s Nicki Minaj explained why neither she nor Drake were featured in the 2010 edition.
“Drake and I, we love XXL,” she said in an interview. “We just shot for XXL. With all due respect, we felt like we kinda had graduated from the freshman class. We felt that XXL missed the mark when they didn’t put us on the cover prior to that. They have to pay for that. They can’t say, ‘Hey, get on the next one.’ But we love XXL. That’s like a hip-hop classic. So we said, ‘Can we have something just a little bit more catered to us, so that we feel like we have still grown as artists, so we’re not at all disrespecting the magazine?’ They were cool with that.” (MTV)
Check out Big Sean’s interview below:
