XXL Issue 154

Lift Off It's been a minute since hip-hop had a relevant group, but Atlanta's trio Migos are changing all that. Words Max Bell Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the June/July 2014 issue of XXL Magazine. The "Bando": a residence, possibly abandoned, where drugs are sold and/or manufactured...

DJ Drama is on his second year serving as host for the XXL Freshman Class. For this year’s Dirty Dozen, the hip-hop tastemaker reflects on the impact of the Freshmen list on the culture, the strengths of incorporating R&B artists, and who he plans on getting in the studio with to make history. Ch...

Each year, XXL presents its list of the best Freshmen for the coming year, and each year that means another class has moved on to sophomore status. But just getting on the Freshmen List doesn't guarantee success—we like to say that it means the work really begins right then and there...

When Nas released his debut album Illmatic 20 years ago on April 19, 1994, he knew he had something great on his hands. What he didn't know was that Illmatic would go on to be considered one of the single greatest bodies of work in hip-hop history, and one of the best debut albums in music, period...

Picking the XXL Freshman Class is overwhelming. When anyone asks what the process is like, I explain that for a good few months we at XXL are really popular people. Everyone is our friend and wants to stop by the office and chill with us. Some are obvious about why they are coming around, and others try to play coy, like we don’t know what they are up to and why they’re there...