My Early XXL Freshman Predictions!

As most rap fans know, each year the XXL hip hop magazine releases a “XXl freshman cover” along with interviews, chypers, and freestyles. It is usually a landmark event for hip hop news, because it usualy shows who is starting to become popular and it exposes people to new rappers that they never knew. Here i will be trying to predict who will make the cover in june. Remember that this is who i think XXL will pick, which is known for picking the most popular to gain headlines, not who i think is the most talented!

 

Juice wrld – These first couple rappers are the most obvious and almost everyone has them on their list right now. Starting with juice wrld, the most obvious, with the smash 4x platinum hit “Lucid dreams” juice wrld represents a new wave of emo that isnt folk infused or cringy like x and lil peep.

Lil baby- A whole new wave of fake young thug rappers are arising, and the face of them being lil baby and gunna.

Gunna – See above

Sheck Wes – With the smash hit Mo bamba and generally positive reviews on his album mudboy, a big name for XXL and the people getting to see what this newcomer has to offer is not a bad trade.

Ybn cordae – XXl ususally has some “criterea” (not confirmed/consistant) and one of those crtierea is to include a lyrical rapper especially on the newer covers. Ybn has been making waves from out the YBN crew and fits that genre and in my opinion, has a lot of talent, although he turns some people off because of his lisp.

Rico Nasty – Another criteria for XXL is to include a female, and this is the best (and probably only) female rapper this year. The only other ones that are applicable are noname and cuban doll and noname probably wont accept it if they do reach out to her.

Blueface – Blueface is one of the most talked about rappers right now, not only because there hasnt been major news/drama in rap since last november, but because people think he is garbage and is blowing up for some reason, if he continues gaining traction and dosent fall off too hard before june, he will be invited to make the list. 

Jaden smith – The reason why i think jaden smith will make the cover is because i think that jaden’s team (his dad -will smith) has a HUGE budget and can afford to bribe xxl. That, and that if you met someone who loved syre, they LOVED syre, so he has some die hard fans, all while hes doing this at 19.

Killy – XXL hasnt had an asian rapper in a while and while most people are putting rich brian on the list, i think that his time has already passed and that brian has been relativly silent while killy has been making waves working with well known producers.

Comethazine – Comethazine is another one of the rappers that can be easily replaced on here, but he has some huge hits, especially on his lyrical lemonade videos, which “walk” has over 50million views. Every song he drops makes its way onto the soundcloud charts, and bawskee charted high on billboard, so i would choose him over most other rappers but i have a feeling that i may be wrong on this one though.

Stay tuned for more of AntLaB22’s Music Reviewer Reviews!

 

My Grammy Picks

Lady Gaga & Bradley CooperBest New ArtistHere are my picks for the catagories i am invested in; who i think will win and my personal favorite.

1. Record Of The Year

THIS IS AMERICA: Childish Gambino (My prediction & personal pick: for being the most impact)

2. Album Of The Year

INVASION OF PRIVACY: Cardi B (My prediction because of the cultural dominance she had, general good critical reception, and because shes a woman)

DIRTY COMPUTER: Janelle Monáe (Personal Pick because it is the best album on here critically and for me too)

3. Song Of The Year

THIS IS AMERICA (Same thing from record of the year)

4. Best New Artist

H.E.R. (My prediction because of the critical acclaim)

CHLOE X HALLE (Most talented out of all these options, even if they are all bad)

5. Best Pop Solo Performance

GOD IS A WOMAN Ariana Grande (My prediction and pick; because this is the only song on here with a non-laidback singing voice besides lady gaga’s which is not as popular, and im going to cry if Havana wins)

6. Best Pop Duo/Group Performance

SHALLOW Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (My prediction and pick, because of the cohesion between the two and every other song is garbage water)

8. Best Pop Vocal Album

SWEETENER Ariana Grande (My pick and prediction, every other album on here is an example of why mainstream pop has died)

22. Best Rap Performance

SICKO MODE Travis Scott (Prediction because mo bamba)

BUBBLIN Anderson .Paak (Least generic, most fun, and unique song on this roster)

Best Rap Song

SICKO MODE (Prediction and pick; most popular; and although i think its severly overrated, i will credit its mind warping asthetic and for changing trap again for the second time since rodeo)

25. Best Rap Album

INVASION OF PRIVACY Cardi B (Prediction; critical acclaim, dominance on the charts, 4 times platinum, and a woman)

DAYTONA Pusha T (My pick; not the best but the best on this list)

 

Stay tuned for more of AntLaB22’s Music Reviewer Reviews!

 

WORST Album of 2018! – “Skins” by xxxtentacion (‘s management) – Critic Album Review

I called it.

This album sucked and i don’t even have to explain it; but i will anyway.

Sonically, this album, as predicted by the singles and track length of ten songs for 17 minutes, is an absolute mess of nothingness and terrible production. Songs barely start before they are finished, the production is ringtone worthy, and sounds like someone recorded it outside and purposely downed the bitrate. The songs are despondent, barely recognizable, and there is nothing gratifying about listening to this. The lyrics don’t tackle anything at all, and it seems like this album has no purpose.

Although this music is absolute garbage, which even die hard x clout chasers will admit is awful, i cant put the responsibility on the artist himself, but the blame goes to his greedy label. Unfortunately (another thing i called), the labels are using this as a cash grab and even after the outcry to let him rest and the critical consensus being very negative, Empire has 2 or more albums for x planned in the upcoming years.

Oh nonono.

TheNeedleDrop 2/10

Pitchfork 3/10

antlab – 1/10

Stay tuned for more of AntLaB22’s Music Reviewer Reviews!

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