Why I’m Boycotting the 2014 XXL Freshmen List: A Twitter Rant Reminder Posted by Nathan S. on 05/05/14 | Filed under Top Stories, Opinion, Debates, XXL Freshmen

I fucking swear, this shit happens every year and it makes me want to kick a fucking puppy. For literally years now I've been explaining why I decided to boycott the XXL Freshmen List as matter of principle. But then every year that cover drops, the interwebs explode, and it instantly becomes almost impossible to avoid.

From my point of view, it's a fucked up situation. I can ignore the list and then miss out on a conversation the rest of hip-hop, the culture I'm completely emeshed in, is having. But then I'm also continuing to shine a spotlight on something I feel like already gets way more spotlight than it deserves.  

Similairly, these "recycling tweets as articles" posts feel like the cheapest form of interwebs journalism. But by the same token, if I spend hours writing a detailed breakdown of what's wrong with something I'd love to see disappeark, I'll will hate myself. Plus, I know RefinedHype Nation wants to talk about this list, and I need to give them a place to do it. 

See what this fucking list does to me? It's my yearly existential crisis. So here's the deal. I went on a bit of a Twitter rant detailing why I'm (semi) boycotting the list. It feels cheap, but it's something. Covers above, tweets below. Do with it what you will my people, if you need me, I'll be drinking... 

[Nathan S. is the managing editor of The DJBooth, the proprietor of RefinedHype, and a hip-hop writer. He also occasionally talks in podcast form and appears on RevoltTV. His beard is awesome. This is his Twitter.]