XXL recently released their 2014 “Freshmen Class.” Chance The Rapper, Vic Mensa, Lil Durk, Lil Bibby, Kevin Gates, August Alsina, Jarren Benton and Rich Homie Quan, Isaiah Rashad, TY Dolla $ign, Jon Connor and Troy Ave., all made the cut.
Vanessa Satten, editor-in-chief at XXL, discusses the process of picking the Freshmen Class with rolling out.
What is the process of picking the top new rappers to add to your Freshmen Class?
We start around September and we go to shows, we check out YouTube videos and we do a lot of research for six months. We have meetings and we narrow it down and we have the list picked before March.
August Alsina and Ty Dolla $ign are the first R&B artists to make the list. Why was it important to add them this year?
I think the conversation happens over and over again about rappers who sing and singers who rap. The lines are getting more blurred. More artists don’t want to be defined by a label. If we’re looking at hip-hop from a cultural standpoint, they are affiliated with hip-hop and it’s time for us to expand the class.
Was it difficult to leave any artists off the list?
We believe in everyone who we have. If we believed in another artist, we would have made 13. We believe in the list and that’s what we wanted to have. I stand by the list wholeheartedly. When I look at the cover, I feel complete about it.
