2014 XXL Freshmen Year-End Report Card
It's amazing that it's already been a year since the 2014 XXL Freshman cover, when we unveiled our Dirty Dozen featuring two R&B artists for the first time ever. But now it's time to check the report card (click the image above). The past 12 months—really 14 months, since our 2015 XXL Freshman cover came out slightly later than usual—have been full of ups and downs for our 2014 Class, with big tours, debut albums, successful side projects and new record deals mixed in with extended illnesses, release date delays and occasional label politics for different Freshmen. Now it's time for a report card to see how the Class grades.
August Alsina, Lil Durk and Troy Ave all released full-length projects (as did Chance The Rapper with his band the Social Experiment, credited to Donnie Trumpet); Lil Bibby, Kevin Gates and Rich Homie Quan all dropped new installments of their popular mixtape series; Jarren Benton dropped a new project and built his following with extensive tours; Vic Mensa and Ty Dolla $ign bolstered their credibility with big co-signs and major features; while Isaiah Rashad and Jon Connor spent the year largely touring and popping up here and there on smaller projects while waiting for their turn to shine.
All this month, we've rolled out the 2015 Class' freestyles and cyphers, putting out lists of the Freshmen's best albums, best mixtapes and best collaborations from every XXL Freshman past and present and asked former Freshmen to share advice for this year's Class and for their favorite moments from their own shoot. We also rounded up some fun facts from this year's shoot, broke down all our Freshman Classes by the numbers and even loosened things up by zeroing in on the best selfies from all our Freshmen over the years. Last week's XXL Freshmen Live show in NYC featured plenty of behind-the-scenes action that you can check out right here as well.
So what's the verdict on our biggest class ever? Check out our report card on our 12 2014 XXL Freshman above (click the image to enlarge the text), and check out last year's report card on our 2013 XXL Freshman Class right here.