The 2018 XXL Freshman Class has been announced featuring a line-up of the next-gen hip-hop stars. Of course the first person to catch our attention on this year’s list is grime queen Stefflon Don, who we featured in i-D’s music class of 2017. Steff stands out on the cover as this year’s only woman and only non-American.
The rest of the Freshman Class consists of: Lil Pump, Ski Mask The Slump God, Smokepurpp, J.I.D, BlocBoy JB, YBN Nahmir, Wifisfuneral and Trippie Redd. Interestingly, the cover was announced on the same day one of its “students” was arrested. Pitchfork reports Trippie Redd was arrested for an alleged assault. The 18-year-old rapper was detained for hitting a woman in the head with a gun. XXL have yet to comment on the situation.
Each year all but one of the artists are picked by XXL, with the tenth musician decided by a fan vote. However, this year saw the tenth class member Lil Skies pull out of the shoot after originally accepting. Lil Skies revealed in an Instagram live video the reason behind leaving the crew. He claimed XXL contacted him to be on the cover before the public voting had even began.
“When you guys were allowed to vote, I still won. I still got on the list. Even before that, they chose me to be on the XXL Freshmen,” Lil Skies said on Instagram. “C’mon now. The list is rigged. You’re not placing me in no category.”
The XXL Freshman Class issue will officially drop on July 3rd.