Revisiting The 2011 XXL Freshmen –
Their Success & Where Are They Now?
Cyhi the Prynce
The hardest verse on “So Appalled” from Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album has to get you somewhere, doesn’t it? Eh…. I don’t know. Cyhi has yet to release his debut project. Since the cover he’s dropped two subpar mixtapes and a few verses on G.O.O.D Music’s Cruel Summer album, which might get you somewhere, but Cyhi hasn’t truly tapped the potential that he was expected to. He was dropped by Def Jam back in 2015.
Where are they now?
Safe to assume he’ll be on the upcoming Cruel Winter collab album if that ever drops.
His debut solo album, No Dope On Sundays was finally released in 2017. The project featured most of the G.O.O.D. Music artist roster and was critically acclaimed when it was released.
CyHi was last said to be working on a seven song album with Kanye West around the time other G.O.O.D. Music artists, and Nas were releasing their 7 song projects. As recently as June 2019 he promised new music from himself, produced by Kanye.
Big K.R.I.T
The Mississippi based rapper is a hot commodity in both the rapping and recording world. His sophomore album, Cadillactica, was one of the most positively critically acclaimed projects of 2014 and received major praise from XXL saying that “Lyrically he’s never sounded surer of himself, and his beat selection proves we have nothing to worry about when he relinquishes some of that control.”
Where are they now?
It’s safe to say that K.R.I.T lived up to the hype he was expected to. In October 2015 he released a mixtape titled, It’s Better This Way with DJ Drama. In July 2016 he released a new freestyle mixtape titled 12 for 12. In September 2016 he released a mixtape with saxophonist and producer Kenneth Whalum. The project was titled Might Not Be Okay.
In 2017 K.R.I.T. finally unveiled his 3rd album, 4eva Is a Mighty Long Time. The double disc project showed fans the evolution of K.R.I.T.
In 2019, Big K.R.I.T. revealed his 4th album, K.R.I.T. iz Here, the sequel to his 2010 mixtape, K.R.I.T. Wuz Here.
Meek Mill:
Well, where do I start with Meek Mill? Being the avid Drake fan that I am, let me find a way to not start too bias. His Dreamchasers 2 mixtape was one of my favorite projects released to date and Dreams and Nightmares was not only a very underrated album, but also has one of the hardest title tracks of all time.
Where are they now?
Sadly for a while there it had come down to the point for the Philly rapper that he’s more recognized for a song that wasn’t even his, and for Twitter memes that completely bash his name to the ground. At least we know who’s tour it is.
Interestingly enough he became the face of a prison reform movement while locked up, which provided quite the career resurgence for the rapper. #FreeMeek became a campaign shouted out by fellow rappers and the likes of Jay-Z and Robert Kraft.
When he was finally released, he put the beef with Drake behind him and he released the 2018 album, Championships. Meek has been a top 5 or top 10 artist in the game, depending on your preferences, ever since.
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