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The coronavirus pandemic wasn’t going to stop XXL from moving forward with its annual freshman class. XXL officially unveiled its 2020 Freshman Class on Tuesday afternoon with a star-studded lineup of up-and-comers who have burst onto the scene in hip hop over the past 12 months.
The artists hail from Memphis, Tennessee; Chicago, Illinois; New York, New York; Las Vegas, Nevada; Louisville, Kentucky; St. Petersburg, Florida; Montgomery, Alabama; San Francisco, California; and Atlanta, Georgia.
The XXL Freshman Class includes NLE Choppa, Polo G, Chika, Baby Keem, Mulatto, Jack Harlow, Rod Wave, Lil Tjay, Calboy, Fivio Foreign, Lil Keed and 24kGoldn.
Pop Smoke was also selected to be a member of the 2020 class and accepted the honor a month before his death, but XXL was not able to include him posthumously on the cover.
“One of the bittersweet memories of the 2020 Freshman process was meeting with Pop Smoke a month before his tragic death. Pop was chosen as the first Freshman in the class, to which he happily accepted,” XXL said in the release.
“Circumstances out of our control prevented us from including Pop as part of the cover posthumously, but to us, he is still part of the class. The issue features an unreleased interview from Pop’s January visit with us where he discussed his career and the Brooklyn drill scene. R.I.P. Pop Smoke.”
You can check out the full lineup below.
