Double X L, Double X L, to Soulja Boy, my soul I would sell.
So, I’ve already made a video talking about 10 rappers who fell Off after making the XXL
Freshman List, so obviously the next step would be looking at 10 XXL Freshmen that blew
up after appearing on the list. Whether you feel that the list has lost credibility recently
or not, it’s hard to deny that it’s acted as a nice launching pad for the careers of
many young artists. So with that being said, this is CDTVProductions, you can follow me
on Twitter under that exact handle, and let’s get started with the list of 10 XXL Freshman
Rappers Who Blew Up After the List.
List:
10 - ScHoolboy Q (2013)
It’s pretty crazy when you look at the difference between ScHoolboy’s chart performance before
he made the list, and then look at it after he made the list. The 2 albums he dropped
prior to the list, those being Setback and Habits & Contradictions, peaked at number
100 and number 111 respectively on the Billboard 200. Then all of a sudden, Q hits the Freshman
list in 2013, drops a couple popular singles, and boom his next album, Oxymoron peaked at
number 1 on the Billboard charts. And this success has continued all the way to his most
recent release, the Blank Face LP which peaked at number 2. And in my opinion, ScHoolboy
deserves this success, he might just be my next favourite member of TDE next to Kendrick.
9 - Future (2012)
Now he may have completely ruined the cypher he was in for XXL, but Future would go on
to be pretty huge. Before the list he had only released one album, titled Pluto, but
his most prominent albums came afterwards. All you would need to focus on to see this
is his 2013 project DS2, which had insane first week numbers of 344,000 sales. Not to
mention all 3 of his albums after DS2 would become number 1 albums. He also has the huge
song Mask Off under his belt and has featured with almost every big artist. He was somewhat
popular in 2012, but following the list his name has been absolutely everywhere.
8 - YG (2011)
YG had only released 3 mixtapes prior to being featured on this list, although he did have
a relatively big song called Toot It and Boot It, which peaked at number 60 on the Hot 100.
Now it would take him a while to really pick up his momentum after appearing on the list,
but things would start looking up in 2013 when he released the song My N***a, which
was used in an unreal amount of Vines back when that was still alive. This song sold
really well, and YG would continue to have successful singles that year with Who Do You
Love? and Left, Right. He would not only have success with singles though, as both his albums
hit the top 10 of the Billboard 200. Only time will tell if his upcoming album, Stay
Dangerous, will have the same performance.
7 - J Cole (2010)
Like come on, you already know the memes about his success. Platinum with no features, double
platinum with no features, single handedly started and ended World War 3 with no features,
ended world hunger and then ended the world with no features. He’s done it all. All
you have to do is look at the amount of discussion occurring around Cole’s newest album KOD,
and it’s easy to say that he has blown the hell up. He was featured on the list after
only releasing 2 mixtapes, The Come Up and The Warm Up, which were successful mixtapes,
but compare them to where he’s at now and they pale in comparison.
6 - Macklemore (2012)
Now a lot of people said I should’ve included Macklemore in my 10 Rappers Who Fell Off After
XXL list, but if you take a look at the evidence, this really isn’t the case. He definitely
did blow up after it, and looking at the stats he is still very much on. Because every album
he has released so far after the list, has been pretty successful. The Heist has sold
over 1.4 million copies in the US, This Unruly Mess I’ve Made has sold over 600,000, and
his newest solo album Gemini, whilst it was pretty bad in my opinion, still charted at
number 2 selling 51,000 copies in just its first week. And he’s still currently making
hit songs, not as many as he used to, but his song Glorious from 2017 has went platinum
and Good Ol’ Days with Kesha charted in the top half of the Hot 100. Macklemore exploded
in 2012 and he’s still retaining a decent amount of that success to this day.
5 - Lil Uzi Vert (2016)
You might argue that Lil Uzi was pretty successful before making it onto the Freshman list, and
I agree with that, but he shot up in popularity even more after it. He had released Lil Uzi
Vs The World before the list which eventually went gold, but I feel like most of his success
came after it. Songs like Money Longer and You Was Right went double platinum after the
list and on top of that in 2017 he released his biggest song to this date, that being
XO Tour Llif3. There’s no denying that this song was absolutely huge, so far its went
6 times platinum and has 200 million views on YouTube. Additionally he had his most successful
project after the list, that being Luv Is Rage 2, which sold 135,000 copies in its first
week. He definitely had a fair amount of success before the list, but I think this proves that
most of it came after.
4 - Big Sean (2010)
It actually surprised me when I look at how early on in his career Big Sean was featured
here. He had only dropped 2 mixtapes at this point, and it really showed XXL was really
focused on actually scooping up emerging talent on their earlier lists. After this list, Sean
pretty much became a big success from the first studio album, and now he has 3 platinum
albums, 1 Gold album, and has one of the most popular mixtapes on Datpiff with Detroit,
which has been downloaded over 2.4 million times. There’s a lot you can knock Big Sean
for, sometimes he has lines that are best described as painful, occasionally his monotone
flows sound lazy, but I think he’s an artist that is only improving and he’s undeniably
made it into the big leagues of hip hop.
3 - Logic (2013)
Logic had already built a pretty strong fan base by 2013 from his first two Young Sinatra
mixtapes, but in the present day he is a worldwide success. Logic really seems to be an artist
that somehow manages to pretty much double his fan base with each new project. Look,
I may have incredibly mixed feelings about his Everybody album (haha get it, “mixed”
feelings), but that doesn’t mean I can’t recognise the insane amount of success it
has brought him. The album itself went number one in its first week and spawned a gold,
platinum and multi platinum single with Black Spider-Man, Everybody, and the “who can
relate? Whooo!” Song respectively. 4 years after this list, 2 gold albums and one platinum
album later, it’s safe to say Logic is at his commercial peak at this point.
2 - Travis Scott (2013)
I mean, this man dropped an album that many would say re-defined modern trap music, some
would call it an instant classic. There are also others that would instantly write off
Travis because of the autotune, but he’s one of the people to use it in the most creative
fashion to me. Using multiple different vocal effects, he really makes his voice another
instrument on the song, and it’s very easy to see why Travis would achieve fame so quickly.
Both his studio albums have went platinum, and when AstroWorld finally releases, whenever
that may be, it’s safe to say it’s gonna go platinum very quickly as well. And if you
just have a burning hate for autotune for whatever reason, you should at least try out
Owl Pharoah or even Days Before Rodeo where Travis raps in his regular voice a lot. He’s
a very talented guy and whether you like it or not, he is also very influential.
1 - Kendrick Lamar (2011)
There’s really not anyone else I could pick for the number 1 spot, hell, most people see
Kendrick as THE number 1 in hip hop music right now. He was featured on the list before
he had even released a studio album, but would go on to release his debut, Section.80 a few
months later. This album was received pretty well, but only sold around 5,000 copies in
its first week, which looks like nothing considering Good Kid Maad City released just a year later
sold 242,000 copies first week. Then To Pimp A Butterfly did 324,000 copies. Then DAMN.
did 603,000 first week. He’s only going up, and rapidly so. In the span of 5 years,
Kendrick has had success after success, becoming more and more relevant to the point where
you really start questioning if he can keep 1 upping himself. He has done a fantastic
job, is seen as the greatest of all time by many, and in my opinion, is the biggest XXL
Freshman success story.
(Outro)