Discussions about XXL's 2020 Freshman Class continues. The publication has been under fire this week after announcing the 12 artists they've chosen for this year's Class, and now XXL's editor-in-chief, Vanessa Satten, chatted with The Breakfast Club about a few exclusions. As we previously reported, XXL shared that Pop Smoke was the first Freshman they chose and still wanted to include him after his death. Vanessa expounded on that, adding that it was Pop Smoke's team who decided that they didn't want him on the cover.
Then, Vanessa addressed the controversy regarding Don Toliver not being chosen. "We love Travis [Scott], we love the Cactus Jack team, but Don Toliver came up and he said he didn't want to take part in any of the concerts or anything," said Vanessa. "He would just stand there for the cover. He didn't want to do freestyles, he didn't want to do cyphers—just said I'm not gonna do anything. I'm just going to stand there for the cover."
XXL wanted an artist that would participate in all that being a Freshman had to offer. "The meeting was interesting because he said straight up, 'I'm just not doing it,'" Vanessa added. She said they hadn't offered it to him and were just having a "listening session," but Toliver made it clear what he would and wouldn't do so XXL decided to "move on."
She also touched on Fivio Foreign catching flack for being 30-years-old and a Freshman. Vanessa stated that it wasn't as if he's been in the running for 10 years. "He's new to the game. We don't know him from a few years ago. It just happens to be that he's older." Check out the interview below.
