XXL Editor-In-Chief Vanessa Satten Breaks Down Freshman Cover Selection Process

On Wednesday, XXL unveiled its highly anticipated 2015 Freshman list. The hip-hop magazine's editor-in-chief Vanessa Satten stopped by the Breakfast Club to break down the Freshman cover selection process.

During the interview, Satten revealed that the grueling process begins in the fall and consists of staff attending shows across the country, speaking to people in the music industry, interviewing those close to the Freshmen cover candidates and more.

"October, November we start," Satten said. "We go for months. It's exhausting. I mean there's harder jobs out there, definitely in the world. But we sit with artists over and over and over again. We go to shows. We travel out of town to go to shows. I think we sat with 75 different artists. They come to the office. We'll sit with them multiple times as we narrow it down. We talk to you guys. We talk to anyone that we come across in the industry. We talk to little brothers and little sisters and nephews and pretty much everyone. And then we start arguing and narrowing it down in different long, long meetings...We never do your next door neighbor. We never do your boy...There's definitely some good ones out there. There's hits and misses."

As for this year's selection, Satten explained the decision to include Tink and Dej Loaf.

"The cover's supposed to be a reflection of what's going on in hip-hop right now," she said. "I think that we saw R&B last year cause R&B was a little bit more heavy. And we didn't have as many pitches or as many artists that were as actively in the conversation with R&B. More with females this year, which was great to see. So, we didn't really want to be forced to pick between Dej and Tink. You don't really have to. We're treating them all as valid artists. Not as female artists. Not as white artists. Not as black artists. As valid artists based on the same credentials for the solo album and all that. So, we went back and forth and was like 'This is a reflection of what's going on.'"

She also revealed that OVO reps for PartyNextDoor and iLoveMakonnen were uninterested in being part of this year's class.

"Nobody turned it down this year, but some funny responses...Not funny, I don't wanna be weird, but not such responsive responses from the PartyNextDoor/iLoveMakonnen camp. That they didn't seem so interested, so we didn't run that lane too hard." 

Their labelhead Drake turned down the opportunity back in 2010.

As previously reported, this year's cover also includes Fetty Wap, Vince Staples, OG Maco, Raury, K Camp, Shy Glizzy, GoldLink and Kidd Kidd.

XXL began its annual "Freshman Class" tradition during 2007.

This year's entire class is slated to play a big show together in NYC on June 30 at the Best Buy Theater. Tickets are on sale now.

Check out Vanessa Satten's interview in its entirety here: