9 Rappers Who Turned Down Spots On XXL's Freshman List

How much does XXL's annual Freshman issue actually matter? That question gets bounced around every year as artists are snubbed, unfairly inflated, and in the case of someone like Kidd Kidd, chosen some seven years after they appeared on a Top 20 single (Lil Wayne's 2008 track "Mrs. Officer"). If, in theory, you're an almost completely unknown rapper, there's no question, being a Freshman will increase your buzz and have very little downside. But if you're an already-established artist with a deal (as most Freshman have been in the past few years), the pros/cons debate gets more complex.

Fail to break out past your current position and you'll forever be remembered as a flop, rather than a low-key success. Sing or rap in an unorthodox manner, and "real rap" fans will use you as a proxy argument for why hip hop is dead. Considering that, it's no surprise that quite a few rappers have actually turned down chances to become XXL Freshmen.

The following are nine that have explicitly turned down spots. There are undoubtedly many more, but in the sake of reducing speculation, we're limiting this to artists who have confirmed (whether themselves or via an XXL editor) that they were offered a spot and didn't take it. 

Be sure to revisit our list of the top 10 XXL Freshman flops. 

Year: 2010

In an interview with MTV following the selection of the 2010 class, Nicki said she told XXL, "No disrespect, but no thanks." She continued:

"Drake and I, we love XXL. We just shot for XXL. With all due respect, we felt like we kinda had graduated from the freshman class. We felt that XXL missed the mark when they didn't put us on the cover prior to that. They have to pay for that. They can't say, 'Hey, get on the next one.' But we love XXL. That's like a hip-hop classic. So we said, 'Can we have something just a little bit more catered to us, so that we feel like we have still grown as artists, so we're not at all disrespecting the magazine?' They were cool with that. We didn't dictate, we just asked nicely."

Drake echoed her sentiment in another 2010 interview: "Technically, we were freshmen when they didn't put us on. I feel now it's just returning the favor."

Sure enough, the two Young Money artists appeared on XXL's cover by themselves just two months later, in May 2010. Needless to say, it was a smart move. 

Year: 2011

In an interview with DJ Drama before the Freshman issue came out in 2011, Cam'ron explained why his artist Vado turned down a spot on XXL's cover, giving a "too little too late" answer that was similar to Drake and Nicki's:

"To be honest, he's not gonna be on there. It ain't definite yet, but I spoke to [XXL's editor in chief] ... She called me about doing it. They didn't put him on last year, they wanted him on this year... so I told the lady at XXL I'd get back to her. If Vado does do the cover for XXL, I want him to be a main focus. I'm not trying to be an asshole, like 'It's us or nothing,' [but] my man put a lot of work in last year. I'm not saying that the other people that's coming up shouldn't be on the cover either, I'm just saying give him a little focus on the cover. She said she didn't know if she could, and I understand that."

Now that Vado's career has all but fizzled out, do you think it would have been wise if he had accepted it, or would he have lost his buzz even earlier if that was the case?

Year: 2012

When Rocky broke out in Fall 2011 with his Live.Love.A$AP project, people thought he was a lock for the 2012 cover, but that didn't happen. He explained his reasoning and subbed some of the actual class of 2012 in an interview with Fuse later that year:

“I was on the list. I was touring and stuff. It just didn’t work out. I got love for everybody. I think a lot of the motherfuckers on the list are corny as fuck. Shout out to Danny Brown. I think a few people on there are eligible for it, and they deserve to be on that cover.”

Year: 2014

In the early months of 2014, Young Thug (less than a year removed from his 1017 Thug project) was still the most-hated rapper in the game. That didn't stop XXL from wanting him on the cover though. In an ensuing interview with Rolling Out, XXL editor-in-chief Vanessa Satten tried to downplay his relevance at the time:

"A big year for a rap artist isn’t based off of two songs. It takes a lot more than that to have a huge year. Young Thug has had a nice burn for a few months, but I don’t think he has dominated an entire year. I don’t think two songs can do that. Also, Rich Homie Quan and Sage the Gemini both had bigger songs. Although Young Thug had a buzz, it wasn’t the biggest buzz of the year. He was asked to be a part of the cover, but he never showed up. He canceled the night before and I don’t know why. You would have to ask him why."

Slatt! Sage The Gemini bigger than Young Thug?

Year: 2015

Following the unveil of 2015's cover, Vanessa Satten once again gave an interview discussing it, this time with The Breakfast Club. In it, she revealed that they were interested in getting then-OVO artists PartyNextDoor and iLoveMakonnen on the cover, but had no luck. To date, neither have spoken about bailing on the cover, so this is all the evidence we have:

"Nobody turned it down this year, but some funny responses... Not funny, I don't wanna be weird, but not such responsive responses from the PartyNextDoor/iLoveMakonnen camp. That they didn't seem so interested, so we didn't run that lane too hard."

"Not such responsive responses"? Okay.

Year: 2016

By last Spring, Tory Lanez had already been around for quite some time, so it was understandable for him to decline the spot. He didn't do it in the most gracious way, but he did offer the most concrete evidence of any artists on this list, simply tweeting, "I passed on the XXL cover. Don't b confused." It's since been deleted, but that seems pretty cut-and-dry to me. 

Year: 2016

In contrast to the other major artist who turned down a chance to be in XXL's class of 2016, Post Malone wrote a long explanation about his absence. Here's an excerpt from that Instagram note: 

"I didn't want to do the cover because I was tired and didn't want to take the 6 hour flight to NY. From the horses mouth, no he said/she said." 

Satten responded with an IG note of her own, claiming that Post's publicist had told XXL that they weren't interested in the cover because Post was "moving away from hip hop and didn't want to be boxed in as a hip hop artist."

Either way, that sounds like a decline to me.