2012 XXL Freshman

My opinion on this years edition of the XXL freshman class is more 50/50 than anything. Meaning there were artists I didn’t oso much approve with, along with others who truly did deserve the spot on the cypher that was given to them. The artists involved in the cypher i’ll be talking about consist of Hopsin, Roscoe Dash, Machine Gun Kelly, Future & Danny Brown.

Hopsin

Marcus Jamal Hopsin aka  Hopsin, is an American rapper, record producer and a director and actor from Los Angeles, California. Hopsin is a very interesting character, known for his unique colored eyes. Making him look like someone off a horror movie. I think he had the best verse in this cypher. He lead it off strong, with a rare flow but influential and very creative lyrics, which is definitely what it takes to become a

member of the XXL freshman cypher.

Machine Gun Kelly (MGK)

Richard Colson Baker, aka MGK and Machine Gun Kelly, is an American rapper and actor, from Cleveland, Ohio. MGK embarked on a musical career as a teenager, releasing a mix tape in 2006. Probably one of the craziest white boys in the rap game, and out of the rest of the blogs I've written so far, he is the only white boy that has been nominated so far, maybe more coming soon. Although black people are more often in the rap game than white people, he performed the second best, after Hopsin. Which says a lot about how race doesn’t always matter when it comes to a style of music that is heavily praised upon black people.

Future

Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn, known professionally as Future, is an American hip hop recording artist. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Wilburn first became involved in music as part of the Dungeon Family. Future has been known for his use of lean. Which makes a large effect on his slow flowed music which gets people into a peaceful slow moving vibe. He makes music for all types of people and circumstances, he’s an all around artist in terms of popularity. Although what I just talked about sums up his music. The way it was done in the cypher wasn’t the future that we all know and love

Roscoe Dash

Jeffery Lee Johnson Jr., aka Roscoe Dash and Roscoe Dash 2.0, is an American hip hop recording artist from Atlanta, Georgia. Back in his earlier recording days he was most popular, for example, “all they way turnt up” with soulja boy. He wouldn’t be considered a one hit wonder but he definitely isn’t up in the rap game anymore. Upon his performance in the cypher, just like everyone he performed well, and gave proof  that he deserved to be on the cover, especially since that's around the time he made the hit song with Soulja Boy.

Danny Brown

Daniel Dewan Sewell, aka Danny Brown, is an American hip hop recording artist from Detroit, Michigan. Known for being described by MTV as "one of rap's most unique figures in recent memory". From my point of view, I didn’t who this guy was up until I looked up who was on this cypher. Although he’s considered oso unique in the rap game, which could mean good or bad. His performance wasn’t up to par with the rest of the crew, I feel there were much better rappers that could've taken a better opportunity with this, or maybe even rappers from other cyphers.