Pass Or Fail? Examining “New School” Of Rappers

On the heels of the release for “XXL’s Freshmen 2010: A New Breed of Hustlers”, I thought it would be a good idea to take look back over previous proclaimed “next generation” of emcees.

A few questions come to mind, of those posed, one being; has the quality of up and coming artists over the past few years declined or has Hip-Hop just gone in a new direction?

Looking back as far as June 1998 when The Source unveiled it’s cover highlighting fresh faces to keep an eye on, names such as Big Punisher (R.I.P.), Canibus, Cam’ron and DMX were thrown in the mix.

Pun who went on to have smash hits like “Still Not A Player” and successful albums (Capital Punishment, Yeeeah Baby) before his untimely passing.

Cam’ron going platinum off Come Home With Me, locking down the game for a significant amount of time, launching Dipset and still presently thriving. Then of course, DMX, who at one time had two multi platinum albums in the same year.

Fast forward to 2007

In this line up you have Lupe Fiasco who’s in the process of now releasing his 3rd album, two certified gold albums, his debut Food & Liquor being the most acclaimed with Jay-Z as it’s executive producer. Rich Boy who’s debut shut down 2007 with the hit single “Throw Some D’s” which spawned numerous remixes and cameos from hip-hop’s finest. His self titled album has sold over 400k units.

Following him, Plies is next, who unquestionably had a break out career, scoring a number of hit records on his own albums and featuring on other artists songs, most notably “I’m So Hood” by DJ Khaled. Joell Ortiz drawing closer to the release of his Free Agent album..not only that but now being in a rap group with Crooked I who was also on the roster for this issue.

Leaving Saigon and Papoose as the proverbial “under achievers” from this class of new emcees. Neither releasing a debut album.

2 years pass and we are introduced to Wale, KiD CuDi, Mickey Factz, Ace Hood, B.o.B, Asher Roth and the rest of the freshmen flock.

Wale, KiD CuDi, Asher Roth and Ace Hood being the only ones out the pack to release an album. KiD CuDi selling the most units and signed to rap megastar Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music imprint. CuDi had a hit single almost an entire two years prior to his debut album being released with Day N Nite. The song which has sold 2 million digital downloads, his first official album Man on the Moon: End of Day selling 400,000 plus units to date (if not already RIAA Certified Gold).

Asher Roth in second place of most units sold, nearly 150k copies in the first month or two, dropping a successful lead single with I Love College. Asher also toured with fellow newcomers KiD CuDi and B.o.B. Then we have Wale who’s debut album; Attention Deficit sold considerably less (30k first week) than his aforementioned peers, still has an extensive resume, performing at the 2009 MTV awards, BET Awards, touring with Jay-Z on the Blueprint 3 tour, and headlining various shows in the U.S. and overseas.

and Ace Hood, well…the height of Ace Hood’s career was him getting roasted on twitter with the hashtag #uknowuacehood . Never the less, Ace Hood is signed to DJ Khaled’s “We The Best” imprint.

That leaves us with: the guy who got dropped from Interscope, bLu (who’s name is subject to change every month), Peter Gunz’s son, Mickey Factz, Curren$y and Grand Hustle prodigy B.o.B to either excel or fail. Word on the streets (that is the information super highway), Mickey Factz, Curren$y and B.o.B will all be releasing albums in 2010.

Reading through all the artists listed and accolades attained, it sure does seem as if the amount and measure of success has declined more and more as the years went on, correct? Why is that so? why does it appear to be such a pitfall in the achievements?

With that in mind, one might hope that labels and management are paying close attention to the statistics of years passed if they plan on seeing any type of longevity of these new freshmen being ushered in on XXL’s upcoming print release in March.

The names swirling for this issue are J. Cole, Nipsey Hu$$le, Freddie Gibbs, Pill, Donnis, Jay Rock, OJ Da Juiceman, Wiz Khalifa, Big Sean and Fashawn. Majority of these guys have already secured record deals, if not, being in a good enough situation to be relevant and not necessarily need one.

Looking at the choices to be dubbed “New Breed Of Hustlers”, what can we expect from these cats? more so the point, what IS Hip-Hop looking for in the next wave to hold down our beloved genre? is it swag? ringtone songs? youtube instructional dance videos? eh, me thinks we should just go back to the basics of this thing we call rappin’. Yeah, let’s go with that.