If you ever land on the cover of XXL as a Freshman, consider yourself blessed. But, what a lot of artists tend to misunderstand is that getting there is only half the battle. What you do afterwards is completely on you. We’ve watched a handful of rappers like Future, Macklemore, Kendrick Lamar, J.Cole, and more reach meteoric success, while several of their contemporaries withered away. See which rappers were once XXL Freshmen and failed to live up to the hype.
Credit: Rick Diamond/Getty Images
Where Are They Now: XXL Freshmen Who Never Blew Up
Gorilla Zoe
Credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images
The Atlanta rapper made noise for himself when he nailed an appearance on XXL’s 2008 Freshman Cover. Sadly, he vanished into oblivion up until 2014, when he revealed he signed to Flo-Rida.
Rich Boy
Credit: Christopher Polk/Getty Images
Rich Boy crushed the scene when he first came out and dropped his poignant single, “Throw Some Ds.” The youngster had several gems in his catalog including, “Ghetto,” which featured the likes of Nas & Lil Wayne. Like Zoe, he faded away until he spoke to Noisey a couple years back about revamping his sound with Hit-Boy.
