XXL's 10 Freshmen: Hip-Hop's Class of '09

James dropping by with a short post. Everybody should check out this month's issue of XXL. It's all about this year's ten breakout rappers (Wale, B.o.B., Charles Hamilton, Asher Roth, Cory Gunz, Blu, Mickey Factz, Ace Hood, Kid Cudi, & Curren$y). It's a great introduction for a whole slew of new young rappers that are worth checking out. I've been a Wale supporter for well over a year now and still can't wait for his debut album on Mark Ronson's Allido Records in Spring 2009. Asher Roth's mixtape with DJ Drama is very impressive. As a young white guy, he's getting lots of comparisons to Eminem (they sound a bit alike) but they're very different lyrically. Blu, Mickey Factz, Kid Cudi, Hamilton, and B.o.B. are all doing some cool shit too. Check out Johnson and Johnson (the collaboration between Blu & Mainframe). All of them have great mixtapes out that are worth searching for. Here are links to a few of them:

The Mixtape About Nothing by Wale
http://elitaste.com/blog/2008/12/03/ladies-and-gentlementhe-mixtape-about-nothing/

100 Miles and Running by Wale
http://elitaste.com/blog/2008/11/11/wales-100-miles-and-running-mixtape-at-61000-downloads/

B.o.B.'s Mixtapes
http://www.myspace.com/bobatl

The Greenhouse Effect by Asher Roth (with DJ Cannon & DJ Drama)
http://www.asherrothmusic.com/

Charles Hamilton's put out 8 mixtapes in the past two months!

A Kid Named Cudi by Kid Cudi
http://www.10deep.com/KIDCUDIMIXTAPE/

The future of hip hop is here!!

-- James