The 10 Freshmen of 2010 Cover XXL…

…for the April 2010 issue.

If you remember, last year XXL completely dropped the ball by excluding both Nicki Minaj and Drake off of their highly debated list of emerging emcees. So this year they asked both of the Young Money members to join the “Freshmen Class of 2010” and if you haven’t noticed by looking at the cover above, they declined. I’m not sure who thought it would be a good idea to even ask them to appear on this list after snubbing them last year…probably the same person who was too slow to put them on it the first time around.

I think XXL shot themselves in the foot with this whole “10 Freshman” thing to begin with. By giving the Freshman class a specific number they’ve put themselves in a position where they have to try and fill 10 spots every year. As result, people like OJ Da Juiceman make the cut….

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Yep, you heard it correctly. He just rhymed “basketball player” with “basketball player”. Smfh….chances are that shit was ghostwritten.

Anywho, they should just call it “The Freshmen Class of (Whatever Year)” without including a specific number of artist. That way they can only include artists that are truly worthy of being featured, whether it’s 3 or 10.

Head over to XXL to read about these up and coming artists, who with the exception of J. Cole, Nipsey Hu$$le and Big Sean probably won’t be around this time next year.

Jay-Z Covers XXL…

In the upcoming October issue of XXL magazine Mr. Carter discusses his reign as President of Def Jam records, compares himself to The Beatles and also talks about how he’d beat Jesus in an arm wrestling match because he’s God MC Jay-Hova. Oh yeah, he also responds to the criticism he’s received in regards to his first single off of The Blueprint 3, “D.O.A.“….

“I’m not hating on young people. Like, when people say that, I’m like, What are you talking about? It’s just stupid. I’m not hating on young people… I’m not Bill Russell, [saying] Michael Jordan ain’t shit. I’m saying Lil Wayne and Kanye are like LeBron and Kobe. My job as someone at the forefront of the game is to leave it in a better position than when I came in. Same way that Russell [Simmons] left it to me. ’Cause this thing saved my life. Literally. So I have a responsibility to it karmically. And after that it’s on you. I did my part. I made ‘D.O.A.’ I said it. I made the statement. I made the push. Here, y’all take it from here.”

I never felt like Jay was hating on young people in “D.O.A.”, I actually think he was hating on one person in particular….but I’ll go more into that in an upcoming post. Anywho, to read more excerpts from the interview go to XXLmag.com.

XXL 2nd Annual Hood to Hood Issue…

…features Gucci Mane, Soulja Boy, OJ Da Juiceman and Shawty Lo on the cover. Just in case you forgot, XXL’s 1st Annual Hood to Hood issue featured Miami artists Rick Ross, DJ Khaled, Trina and Flo Rida.

Ummm…I would comment but Maurice Garland did a great job already. Click here to read his thoughts on the cover.

Eminem Covers XXL…

(click pics to enlarge)

In the June issue of XXL Eminem talks about Proof’s death, drug addiction (surprise!), the current state of hip-hop and more specifically Lil’ Wayne and T.I….

“I stayed up on the music, and obviously I watch TV and saw what was going on. And without naming any names, it just felt like hip-hop was going downhill. And it seemed like kinda fast. You know, in them three years, it was like everybody just cares about the hook and the beat; nobody really cares about substance. But with this new T.I. album, with this new Lil Wayne album of recent, it seems like things are looking a lot better now. You can appreciate Lil Wayne using different words to rhyme and actually rhyming words that you know. Or T.I., where you hear shit and you’re like Whoa, ah, I wish I would have thought of that! You know what I mean? Or you hear all the compound-syllable rhyming and all that. It just seems like now the craft is getting cared about more.”

Is it me or does it sound like he was trying really hard to find something good to say about Lil’ Wayne?…“using different words to rhyme and actually rhyming words that you know.” Really? A rapper that uses different words to rhyme and words that you know? That’s some groundbreaking shit right there…rap is truly evolving as we speak.

Question: Does Em really like Wayne’s music or is he just mentioning him because he’s what’s “hot” right now? I wish Em was as critical about other rappers as he is about other celebrities. He says he felt hip-hop was going downhill but he doesn’t wanna name anybody in reference to that. Why not? He doesn’t have any problems calling out the names of movie and pop stars for things that have absolutely nothing to do with the desecration of his beloved art form, hip-hop.