We, the editors of HNHH, put our heads together this afternoon and picked the 10 artists we deemed most deserving of the 2016 XXL Freshman cover. Tough choices were made. Digital fists of fury were thrown on the HNHH editor email thread. But we feel good about our list. Our list is rock fucking solid.
NOTE: according to the official bylaws of XXL, any artist who has released an album on a major label is ineligible for the Freshman cover. Hence, we did not include Bryson Tiller on our list.
We made a list last year, too -- of the ten artists we nominated for the 2015 cover, six were selected, one opted not to participate, and three were spurned and included again on this year's HNHH list of nominations.
Without further ado...
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ANDERSON .PAAK
BOOGIE
DENZEL CURRY
G HERBO
JAZZ CARTIER
LIL UZI VERT
MICK JENKINS
NEF THE PHAROAH
POST MALONE
TORY LANEZ
To recap:
HNHH's Picks For The 2016 XXL Freshman List