The Yearly Reminder That Macklemore Is Technically The Most Successful Artist From XXL's Freshman Class of 2012, or Max Continues To Explore the 2012 XXL Freshman Class, Part IX

For the ninth year in a row (sort of), we’re going to check in with the ten artists that made up XXL’s Freshman Class of 2012. Here’s past Max explaining this particular side project for the newbies who have stumbled into HHID over the past year for whatever reason (the Patreon, RandoMax Radio, the Twitter feed, whatnot):

“Ever since I made the horrible decision to maintain a 7-Up-esque series following the rappers chosen for [the XXL Freshman Class] in 2012, keeping tabs on each of the ten artists and their respective careers since gracing the magazine’s cover, I’ve found myself struggling to both:

(a) still care, in most cases, and

(b) find music representative of the growth one would assume each man (and one woman) had undertaken in order to organically prolong their professional lifespans.”

Has anything changed, at least significantly enough to make me change my mind about the viability of this project and/or the importance of my own mental health? Read through to find out!
But before skipping down to see how I manage to give props to Danny Brown this time around, why not catch up on this series from the very beginning? This way you can also track the progress of the ten lucky artists who’ve had to put up with me being very critical about their respective careers for the past nine years, and also, some of what I wrote is still pretty funny today.

Part I (2012) 
Part II (2013) 
Part III (2014) 
Part IV (2015) 
Part V (2017) (I had skipped the 2016 installment due to a blog hiatus and was making up for it here)
Part VI (2018)  (This is the 2017 installment running five months later than intended)
Part VII (2018)  (And now we’re back on track)
Part VIII (2019) 

Below are my thoughts on songs each represented artist released from December 1, 2019 through November 30, 2020, with exceptions that I’ve noted below. At this point, I hope you two understand the point of this exercise, so I suggest you enjoy the ride for what it is, maybe check out a couple of the songs listed below, and save the vitriol for when I undoubtedly trash your favorite album or artist at some point in the near future.

Thanks for reading!

MACHINE GUN KELLY (formerly MGK, formerly MACHINE GUN KELLY, formerly MGK, formerly MACHINE GUN KELLY)

What I wrote before: “....Baker may ultimately quit the game and focus on Hollywood full-time… but at least he isn’t actively coasting behind the microphone…”

Song I listened to this time around: "bloody valentine”

The running gag on social media is that Eminem destroyed Coulson “Machine Gun Kelly” “MGK” “Just Pick One, Bro” Baker’s music career so badly that he switched genres, since the man’s 2020 album Tickets To My Downfall is far more pop-punk than it is anything even remotely resembling hip hop. This is a bad faith reading, since MGK’s musical output has always incorporated influences from other musical fields of study, and besides, he does actually rap on Tickets To My Downfall apparently. So while it isn’t a true story in the least bit, it is a funny way for me to lead into a brief review of “bloody valentine”, the album’s first single, which sounds exactly like the generic pop-punk rock claptrap your music supervisor would procure for your micro-budget film when you have literally no money to pay artists people may have actually heard of before. Baker’s vocals sound flat, as though he’s singing sarcastically and not at all sincerely, although this could be his way of displaying the confused nature of the narrator, who appears torn between drowning in “fake love” as he guards himself, while at the same time wanting to open up to new experiences, but is really does come across like he can’t sing, but he “can’t sing” with passion (read: he yells his lyrics the agreed-upon amount of times). “bloody valentine” is produced by Travis Barker, hip hop’s favorite drummer not named Questlove and expert in the pop-punk field due to his day job as a part of blink-182, but that doesn’t make this song sound any less phony. I’m more impressed with how Coulson convinced Puff Daddy’s Bad Boy Records to release this shit than I am that he bumped his head and switched it up on us, since there is nothing good about this one. But hey, whatever keeps him feeling creative, I guess. And for the record, I still think “Rap Devil” is the better actual song. It was certainly much funnier than “Killshot”, anyway.


DANNY BROWN

What I wrote before: “…he’s likely the one guy you two will agree actually deserves continued coverage on this site, but I can’t really blame you...”

Song I listened to this time around: "Best Life”

Daniel “Danny Brown” Sewell apparently didn’t release anything this year, which certainly doesn’t help with my needs at all, so I’m forced to double back to uknowhatimsayin¿, his 2019 project that, to the man’s credit, still doesn’t sound like anything within our chosen genre today even though it’s over a year old at this point. “Best Life” was that album’s second single, a Q-Tip-produced effort that finds the man downshifting into his less hyperactive flow, a polarizing trait that some hip hop heads still can’t look past even nine years into this series of articles, in order to best express how he plans on living his “Best Life” because, as he puts it, “there ain’t no next life.” It isn’t often that we hear atheistic thoughts in rap music, since every other artists seems to be concerned with the teachings of Jesus or Allah, but unlike those annoying-as-fuck unbelievers who revel in trying to destroy your faith, Daniel just says what he says and keeps it moving, declining any opportunity to expand on his personal beliefs in favor of telling his story, and that was refreshing to hear. “Best Life” features two verses filled with very specific imagery that cannot be entirely faked: when a song kicks off with lines such as, “Came from the sewer, where hot dogs got boiled / In the same pot Unc cooked the rock,” you know what you’re about to hear will be slightly skewed. The man’s boasts and braggadocio sound more exciting when filtered through his, er, excitable flow, which is a big part of why he’s amassed as large of a fanbase as he currently has, chomping at the bit for him to release something, anything, showing proof of life. As is the tradition on HHID, Danny Brown is likely the lone artist on this list that you’ll even still give a shit about, and honesty, that assessment makes perfect sense to me.


KID INK

What I wrote before: “...Kid Ink doesn’t wield a strong-enough pen...”

Song I listened to this time around: “Live Forever”

Going against what I wrote about the man last year, apparently Brian “Kid Ink” Collins did release some loose singles in 2019 that slipped past me due to general apathy, a trend that continued into 2020, with no actual album announcement in sight. Or maybe he did say something about a new project, I wouldn’t know, I don’t really give a shit about Kid Ink outside of the scope of these follow-ups. But if he truly doesn’t have anything bigger planned here, that does make me wonder what’s changed in his situation, since by most industry measures he was a relatively successful artist in the field of R&B rapping, a term I made up just now referring to artists who sing-rap their way through their songs. The Auto-Tune during the chorus on “Live Forever” is crazy prevalent, to the point where it renders some of Ink’s lyrics unintelligible, a move that negates the boasts and threats he offers up during the actual verses. Producer Ned Cameron turns in a dark-tinted concoction that isn’t that bad, really, and Kid Ink is appropriately paranoid around it, fearful of the competition usurping his position (“Bout to go to war, got dome new recruits” – um, who are you trying to fool here, your fellow Chris Brown cosplayers?), but his lines don’t provide any context for why we should ever give a fuck. Kid Ink’s lyrics here believe themselves to be harder than they actually appear, which is to say he sounds like every other rapper in the genre, which doesn’t exactly help his cause – when one could easily turn to any of these “new recruits” for their entertainment needs, why should we ever consider Kid Ink? The answer is, you shouldn’t.


FUTURE

What I wrote before: “...the man is successful enough, there’s no reason for him to ever make changes to his blueprint. But this shtick won't hold for much longer...”

Song I listened to this time around: "Life Is Good” (featuring Drake)

This is a stupid collaboration because it isn’t a collaboration at all – “Life Is Good” consists of two separate songs, one featuring Drake and the other Future, that were smashed together for no real reason, the very clear line of demarcation being a brief interlude between the two tonally similar, but different, instrumentals. Seriously, these guys don’t interact at all (except for in the video, obviously), which is weird considering they have a goddamn album together. So I’m going to focus solely on Nayvadius “Future” Wilburn’s portion, a D. Hill production that barely qualifies as “music”, as it sounds like trap drums that have gained sentience but are forced to work a 9 to 5 while living in the suburbs, and the commute is draining. I assume people enjoy the contrast Future songs provide, his druggy, slurred flow always paired with flimsy drums and occasional melody, because he’s easily the most consistently popular artist on this list, but “Life Is Good” is flatter than usual. The problem with his druggy, slurred flow is that he always sounds really fucking bored behind the mic, his apathy contagious and his bars approaching irrelevancy. There are only so many ways one can write about popping pills, selling drugs, and fucking bitches, and they were all exhausted long before Future ever broke out of the Dungeon Family. Nayvadius then resorts to shock value, threatening perceived adversaries with, “Osama spray on this bitch,” which, I don’t even care what the context was, where is this even coming from? Future’s sole trick has been tired, folks, which of course means his career will obviously continue to thrive.


ROSCOE DASH

What I wrote before: “…[Dash has put] little work… into the game, recording in fits and spurts in the hope that, somehow, this will allow him consistent success within our culture …”

Song I listened to this time around: "F.P.C.”

“F.P.C.”, from which I gather stands for “Fresh Paper Cuts”, comes from Roscoe Dash’s 2018 magnum opus, the seventy-two-track 5thy5ive, since the man still hasn’t really dropped anything new as far as I could tell. I admittedly chose this one because it’s short as hell, not even clocking at two minutes, and if this is representative of the kind of shit Dash filled the project with, half-thoughts with little to no cohesion throughout, then the dude should be forcefully awoken from his rap dreams immediately, because he’s pretty much done here. Made up of a single verse and two repetitions of a long-ass chorus, “F.P.C.” manages to say less than nothing at all, Dash’s boasts-n-bullshit sounding like they come from a habitual liar whose girl goes to another school, in Canada, you definitely don’t know her; a dude who couldn’t be entrusted with making correct change, much less with your life in his Lyft. I’ve said in the st that Roscoe Dash is the guy who is the most in danger of being dropped from this series in future editions, and if his performance over this generic club-trap two-year-old horseshit is any indication, it’ll happen sooner rather than later. Hell, I suppose I could have left him off the list this year, but 2020 was a bad enough year for all of us, so I was feeling charitable. Sorry buddy.


HOPSIN

What I wrote before: “…[Hopsin] seems to have taken the wrong lessons away from his Eminem standom …”

Song I listened to this time around: "Covid Mansion”

I’ve long considered Hopsin to be a gimmick that happens to know how to rap. Surely he’s won a lot of younger fans over by appealing to their need to feel “seen”, drawn in by the man’s admissions of mental health issues and engaging-enough shit-talk that mirrors the misplaced teen aggression in their own lives, yes? He’s never really been for me, is what I’m saying, since all I hear in the man’s boasts-n-bullshit is Eminem’s clear influence, and I don’t even like listening to Marshall all that much anymore. But when Hopsin embraces his gimmick, leaning in to it all the way down to the floor, he excels: he last did this for me on “No Words”, and this year, his “Covid Mansion” manages to be both hilarious and impressive. Writing about being trapped in Thailand right when the pandemic started impacting flights to and from the United States (“The dude I’m staying with is annoying,” he offers in a throwaway line near the start), Hopsin dives into Coronavirus conspiracy theories, TikTok challenges, his lack of sexual partners due to quarantine (this part is actually pretty amusing, akin to early Tyler, the Creator), and social distancing, and while it all sounds like something Chris Redd or The Lonely Island could have written for SNL, it’s a real song, and “Covid Mansion” isn’t half bad. The man may have some life in him yet, even though it’s not like this track will, or should, end up in your permanent playlist or anything. I mean, who wants to be constantly reminded of a pandemic that has killed millions of people worldwide and has infected many many more? Or, to put it in a less bleak fashion: “Who would want to be reminded of fucking 2020? I mean, Hopsin raps about not having any toilet paper here!” It’s certainly enjoyable enough, though, and the accompanying video will make you chuckle, so that’s something.


MACKLEMORE

What I wrote before: “...Macklemore could [release his music] on a Kidz Bop compilation as-is, even with the occasional curses: parents would probably just use them as teachable moments...”

Song I listened to this time around: "It’s Christmas Time” (featuring Dan Caplen)

This is very obviously a holiday song, so it’s going to sound corny regardless, but since Benjamin “Macklemore” Haggerty is a corny artist (albeit a Grammy Award-winning one, nonsensically), his youthful exuberance and silly observations actually make for a good pairing with Christmas. Dan Caplen, a London-based crooner who has an active working relationship with Ben, provides the hook for this Budo and Tyler Dopps-produced pop confection, and he sounds fine, and the music is very much in the vein of “type of holiday song you’d hear playing at Target.” Macklemore is the obvious draw, of course, and he delivers two verses filled with both childhood memories and thoughts on how to make the holidays special for his own children, which was a nice direction to take this in. His bars are pretty goofy, but he delivers them so fucking earnestly that it’s impossible to hate this song even if you don’t celebrate this specific holiday. (You would ignore its existence, but you wouldn’t feel the need to exert actual hatred toward it. Not worth the hassle.) It seems to have been recorded as a lark (“It’s Christmas Time” doesn’t appear on any Macklemore project) merely because he wanted to write a Christmas song, so through that lens, he’s successful enough, and he even caps his second verse with, “I wanna take a second to shout-out my dead dog / Toby, he’s dead,” which is so dark and out of left field that it made me laugh out loud and I still kind of feel like a dick about it. Kind of. I assume the whole Macklemore thing is done now, though, right? The world doesn’t need any more songs from the man, and surely he’s saved up enough money (frequenting thrift shops and the like) to live comfortably, no?


DON TRIP

What I wrote before: “...he isn’t on my radar, and likely not on many others, either...”

Song I listened to this time around: "No Gimmicks”

Memphis native Christopher “Don Trip” Wallace may never live up to the standards his given name would seem to imply, but he’s carved out enough of a niche for himself that he doesn’t really need to. Over the years, though, what I’ve found is that a little bit of the man goes a long way, which may be why I prefer his collaborations with brother-in-arms Starlito (as the duo Step Brothers) , and “No Gimmicks”, a loose track untethered to any project, only strengthens my feelings about the guy. He can certainly rap, but without the added pressure competition naturally brings about, he sounds pretty over all of this, an attitude that hardly makes sense over trap beats, which are an aural representation of being loud and annoying. (Oh, that isn’t the purpose of trap beats? My mistake.) Trip sounds uninspired on “No Gimmicks”, which likely means he may need to partake of some flourishes (or “gimmicks”) in his future output in order to maintain any sort of relevancy as a solo artist. That, or just be in the group full-time. Yeah, that second option is probably the best one for Don Trip. Anyway, I didn’t like this song.


IGGY AZALEA

What I wrote before: “...there need to be more female rappers in the game, and I mean of all races, religions, and creeds. But we don’t need Iggy Azalea …”

Song I listened to this time around: “Dance Like Nobody’s Watching” (featuring Tinashe)

I’m all for female empowerment anthems, especially within our chosen genre, but I’m wary whenever Amethyst “Iggy Azalea” Kelly is the messenger, as her entire existence within hip hop has been as a personification of a particular type of cultural appropriation. She’s stepped away from that a bit, but the voice she uses to rap still doesn’t align with her normal speaking voice, and the cognitive dissonance will make your eyes bleed. However, she’s still entitled to make a living, which is how she continues to secure financial backing to record music, which is how we ended up with “Dance Like Nobody’s Watching” earlier this year. The first single from her new album, End of an Era, which will almost certainly be postponed an indefinite number of times due to lack of public interest, this The 87’s-produced track feels oddly incomplete, Iggy’s two bland-ass verses feeling like they were recorded to an entirely different beat, but worked into this one with no thought or care. Her rhymes are focused on the complementary concepts of why she’s a great lay and how she doesn’t have to do shit for you, which is all well and good, but somehow her skills have regressed, as we’re a long way from “Fancy”. Guest star Tinashe performs the hook, which I suppose is what triggered that “Dance Like Nobody’s Watching” TikTok dance craze during quarantine, but it isn’t anything special, and the entire song ultimately feels hollow and desperate. Iggy has clearly run out of things to say – I fully expect her to phase out of our chosen genre any day now. She could always end up pulling an MGK and shift into another genre – she already has a foot in the EDM world, and jumping ship would still help her care for her kid, right? Anyway, this is how, in the year of our Lord 2020, I wrote an entire paragraph about Iggy Azalea without mentioning how Charli XCX carried her ass on “Fancy”.


FRENCH MONTANA

What I wrote before: “...French Montana is great at entertaining the listener, but not so good at the actual performance...”

Song I listened to this time around: "Wave Blues” (featuring Benny the Butcher)

“I’m gangsta, my confrontations always play out with guns,” guest Benny the Butcher says during “Wave Blues”, a bar that hits differently today for obvious reasons, but this paragraph isn’t about the guest, it’s about Karim “French Montana” Kharbouch, a guy who still manages to secure placements on hit songs to this day even though his own major label status is in flux. (Is he even still on Bad Boy at this point?) “Wave Blues” leans heavily on its sped-up Michael Kiwanuka “I’ll Never Love” sample throughout the Bhawkmusic and Arizonaslimbeats production (seriously, have we just run out of producer names?), but the somber tone pushes Frenchy to actually care (a little) about his lyrics, which are all clipped pseudo-philosophical statements (“You can cheat life, but you can’t cheat the hustle”; “Paying a reverend won’t get you to Heaven”) delivered with a burst of energy and very prominent Auto-Tune, which is distracting at times. Was the man just not happy with how his voice sounds in 2020? The nature of the musical backing means that French Montana sounds off-beat approximately half of the time (odd, because Benny finds the pocket very quickly), but the guy has always epitomized style over substance, and as such, he still manages to pull this one out. “Wave Blues” isn’t a great song, but I’ve listened to it three times in order to write these words, and I have to say, it isn’t bad. Huh.

-Max