Watch 21 Savage’s 2016 XXL Freshman Interview and Freestyle

Over the last year, 21 Savage has carved out a lane for himself with hard work and fantastic street bangers. After dropping his debut mixtape, The Slaughter Tape, in May of 2015, the ATL product is becoming a big name in the game.

21 Savage, born Shayaa Joseph, started rapping after he was shot six times and his best friend was killed in 2013. With a strong team behind him, which consists of Lotto Savage, Mookie Madri Gra and Freaky D$MG, 21 dropped The Slaughter Tape to much success. He then took to the streets to promote his music and perform at shows all throughout the South. By the time his follow-up mixtape, #Slaughterking, dropped last December, the hype behind 21 was rabid. With the streets and hip-hop youth behind him, things went to the next level after he dropped "Red Opps," his smash hit single that has over four million plays on SoundCloud.

With a work ethic like no other and plenty of projects on the way, one most notably titled Savage Boomin (his collab tape with Metro Boomin’), 21 Savage is gearing up for a strong run.

"[Now that I’m a Freshman] I’m taking things to the next level, 10,000 people concerts, sold out concerts, sold-out tours, albums doing good sales that type of shit," the 21-year-old tells XXL. "I want my album to do good and I want to do a sold-out tour.”

Watch 21 Savage discuss his grind and rep his gang in the profile and freestyle videos above and below plus check out his best behind-the-scenes photos.

See Behind-the-Scenes Photos of 21 Savage at 2016 XXL Freshman Class Cover Shoot

Freestyle directed by @travissatten and produced by @apk.nyc