How does the list get started? 

Vanessa Satten: The list always starts in a staff meeting. We have the first official Freshmen meeting where everyone on staff has to bring in their picks at that point and we start working on it from there. That is usually around October. Then things get more serious around December and January and we have all our picks selected by mid March. The whole staff is involved in the process and we have regular meetings from September/October to March discussing the list.

Anyone you regret for leaving off the list this year? I notice there aren’t any female MCs present.

VS: No regrets. There are no females present on this year’s list, no. We don’t give ourselves rules on types of rappers we have to have. We aren’t filling a quota. We are just picking the hip-hop artists we believe in at that time, the most.

This list shapes the culture in a lot of ways. Whether there’s talk around those left out or those who made it, hip-hop keeps their eyes and ears on this. How do you feel being a woman at the helm of that conversation?

I feel fine about being a woman at the helm of that conversation and I am confident in my hip-hop knowledge. The list isn’t picked just by myself but with the XXL staff. I will take any responsibility that needs to be dealt with when it comes to Freshmen and XXL but it isn’t my list. It comes from XXL as a whole, selected after we do an incredible amount of research.

Do you take advice from anyone? If so, who?

We talk to everyone in the industry, the fans, former Freshmen, our friends, any hip-hop head we know. We also have a lot of of the potential Freshmen come up to the office to play us music and we go to a lot of live shows to see what their performances are like. That’s why we start so early.

This year, you all chose to have rappers campaign for themselves as to why they should make the list. Why did you all choose this type of process this year?

We just did it so there was more content and to hype of Freshmen since it gets bigger and bigger every year.

Who had the best pitch?

All the pitches worked for what they were supposed to be. They didn’t really play a role in who we picked. It was more for the people voting for the People’s Champ – our 10th spot, which is the spot a rapper gets voted into by the public.

Those who are chosen, what qualities do they have that stand out to you?

Everyone’s different. There are guys who suck that are big stars now. It’s the complete package that helps you become a star. The only criteria with Freshmen is that you can’t be considered for Freshmen if you have put out a major label debut before the actual date of the Freshmen shoot.

Are there any freshmen in past classes that you feel should have waited awhile longer to make the cover? Maybe could’ve been swapped out with another artist?

Nah, I think they are were picked for the class they were supposed to be a part of. No regrets.