It seems like for the last 5 years or so way less people enjoy the XXL freshman list. It only really gets engaged with to voice whatever concerns you have with the state of hip-hop, rather than to celebrate the new talent that was picked

Is it cooked for good? Or is there a way to save it?

I think one thing that could be cool is bringing back the XXL Freshman Mixtape instead of focusing so much on the freestyles and cyphers (especially the freestyles, because 99% of these artists are not interesting acapella)

Instead of just taking throwaway songs like they used to, they should do a Revenge of the Dreamers 3 type thing where they get them all in the studio for a week and make hella collab songs and film it, then drop the best 10-12 or whatever

I think it would be a better showcase of their talents than the freestyles/cyphers would be because most of these artists are studio types now, they punch in, some of them even produce their own music so why not highlight those talents

what else would you do to fix it? Or are we just fried?

Really love that idea maybe artists would be collaborating more often too

Find better rappers

a) Stop receiving sponsorships

b) push a mixtape

c) be ahead of the curve again

Simply just get better rappers, no affiliation to streamers at all

op is 100% right about the mixtapes, i miss them. sucks that they stop getting original songs at some point & just tossed together a comp of the freshmen’s hot songs though

First off not just the last 5 years. It's the last decade.

There is no come up anymore so a freshman list is kind of pointless. A lot of new artists pop up out of nowhere going viral on tiktok

As you mentioned they aren't interested in doing freestyles because they aren't interested in the art of rap. Most YNs nowadays just want the money, fame and lifestyle that comes with it. They don't care about actually being good skillful rapper. Their main goal is get popular and go viral as quickly as possible

XXL freshman was for a different era. Not this one

Either they partner up with streamers for production or lose to them.

It’s already over.

They can't, it's an antique at this point. There's not 10 poppin new rappers a year and no one freestyles anymore.

It needs to be every two years. they should also find people who like rap and not people who just happen to go viral for a snippet.

They need to find the next Lil D***y and it will all shake out

Stop putting trash rappers

maybe cut it down to like 4-6 rappers

Stop doing it every year lol

they can’t

it’s over

incentivize artists making good projects again\

also literacy for kids helps

Invest in childhood literacy programs

Get artists that dont suck ass

On the radar already has the best format for showcasing. They would have to do something like that

Dang, this really makes it hit home for me. We have so many less rappers who take off per year now that it isn’t fully possible. Just crazy.

unless the underlying reasons change the format they have is antiquated compared with the state of the genre for reasons already stated itt

bunch of doomers itt

i mean yea u cant spin time backwards but yal so infatuated w that 2016 s*** (wasnt even that great be fr) that u think it cant be topped/revitalized

think they should find some way to amplify the voting aspect via online campaign (twitch, tiktok, reels/shorts) and go strictly by the most voted for artists

then u get tastemakers that determine which artists make it on the list. from there u got a dozen names n u let them choose whether they wanna freestyle or make a song w their other selected peers

u film a video for the former as usual while the latter gets made in realtime on stream. and if the non-freestyle mfs wanna record a vid / perform it together thats up 2 dem

and do sit down interviews (filmed, with people who actually know how to conduct those atp..) + retrospectives/mini docs so we actually see~understand y these people were chosen and their come up

maybe they can coordinate a small tour for the artists as well

that well circulated idea about getting all of them on a mixtape is gold too, jus gotta make sure u not forcing it and source producers they actually wanna work w

also.. im sorry.. get rid of dj drama at least once. switch it tf up w that already

Make them fist fight

They should do a tape regardless but its loser cop out s*** to do that instead of a cypher/end the cypher because niggas raps aren’t interesting enough to say them acapella or in a cypher lol. Niggas either need to get better bars or do two lists of actual spitters vs “vibe artists/vibe rappers”

Wtf type of s*** has happened to rap the past 15 years where people are so antagonistic towards the foundational skill that got the genre thus far. Its like because you or your fav cant fundamentally rap people s*** on the skill of it lol