disRESPECT.: ScHoolBoy Q Rejected Admission to XXL Freshmen

The feeling of being left out, of being denied something that you think you deserve, is one of the shittiest feelings on Earth. And every year, as April blows in from the sea and Daffodils begin to blossom in New York City, XXL Magazine makes another handful of rappers feel this way. This year one those artists is ScHoolBoy Q, of the TDE crew in Los Angeles. Now, of course we can’t account for Q’s emotions – maybe he doesn’t give a fuck – but surely it has crossed his mind as he’s passed the newsstand in Venice Beach and missed his face. Or perhaps Q doesn’t venture west of Interstate 110, and is oblivious to the whole hubbub. No matter, hubbub or no hubbub, it’s come to our attention that ScHoolBoy does indeed fit the criteria for the XXL Freshman Class, and we want to award him his dues. But note, this little blurb is by no means a shot at XXL, or any of the artists on the April cover. We just like to see those artists who dedicate their lives to the cause get a little sunshine once and a while.

So, if we were to shimmy through the criteria, which XXL E.I.C. Vanessa Satten recently outlined in an interview for Hot 97, we would see that the first stipulation is age. “You can’t have grey hairs,” is how Jayson Rodriguez, Executive Editor at XXL, worded it. Well, when we look at ScHoolBoy Q we don’t see any grey hairs. We see a scruffy beard and mustache, jaundiced eyes, neck and facial tattoos (one on his neck which reads: shame), but no grey hairs. After all, the dude’s only 25, born in 1986. He’s a baby. Thus, criteria one: check!

Criteria two, as laid out by Ms. Satten and Mr. Rodriguez, is that the artist in question has not dropped their major label debut. Well, in the case of ScHoolBoy, there have only been two significant releases, Setbacks in January of 2011 and Habits & Contradictions one year later. Despite the buzz of the latter, both street albums were, well, just that, ‘street albums,’ and were released independently through TDE, Top Dawg Entertainment, which is home to Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, and Jay Rock. Again, criteria two, a check!

The third criteria is a smidgeon vague, but we’ll roll with it anyhow. It’s mixtape prowess and social networking reach. So far, steamrolling into Spring of 2012, ScHoolBoy has released only two mixtapes, Schoolboy Turned Hustla in July of 2008 and Gangsta & Soul in May of 2009. He has 50,000 followers on Twitter, that is, to the 700 he is currently following. That’s a pretty good ratio. Danny Brown, one of the elected Freshman, has just 25,000 followers, while he follows 6,000. Kid Ink, another Freshy, has 143,000 followers and follows 1,000 or so. Clearly ScHoolBoy lies somewhere in the middle of pack. But hell, who gives a fuck about Twitter anyway? That is, besides the labels… And in terms of mixtape prowess, whoever said quantity is the same thing as quality? Birdman just called Drake “a living legend” in our current print issue (Vol. 3 Issue 2) and he’s only dropped three mixtapes and two albums in his career. That’s not too far off ScHoolBoy’s total. Which means, we’ll have to grant Q a big ol’ ‘check!’ in this category as well.

The fourth, and second to last category is touring. We presume that means the number of miles each artists’ tour bus clocks in at on regular inspection – though what happens when Canadian customs refuses to stamp your papers? How does that work? Well, statistically-speaking the departure would have to be appropriated into some sort of compound algebraic formula, like the one the pouty kid in The Social Network uses to launch Facebook. But alas, ScHoolBoy has only been to Canada once, and besides that visit he’s performed in seven cities so far in 2012. Of course, that’s nothing in comparison to a dude like Machine Gun Kelly, who’s on the road so much his metabolism has grown higher than a Hummingbird’s – which, according to Planet TV, has an extraordinarily high metabolism rate. Yet, on the other side of the coin, seven cities is still more than French Montana has booked since January, and Frenchy’s the one popping bottles with Diddy, Rozay, and Yeezy like it’s nothing. Thus, being that he’s in the middle of the pack, again, ScHoolBoy earns his fourth stripe. Check!

The final, and probably most important criteria for being awarded the XXL Freshman cover is quality of music. And this is where ScHoolBoy shines like a blooming paperwhite… No? Have you heard his new street album, Habits & Contradictions? It’s plain genius: original, soulful, and bursting with sonic energy. Take a song like “Tookie Knows (Interlude),” a seemingly unimpressive transition joint composed mainly of ad-libs, vocal distortions, weird noises, and a nihilistic-sounding beat by Digi+Phonics. The record is an enigma. Without really ‘saying’ anything at all, ScHoolBoy directs a soundtrack for the 51st Street drive-by, turning the grumbling of a disabled child into the cylinders of an automobile, Rick Ross-esque ‘woot woot’s’ into shots from a semi-automatic, and background voice samples into the paranoid ramblings of his pawtnas. The record is remarkable and bleeds perfectly into a ghetto reportage number like “Raymond 1969.” “My little nigga 12 said he with it, yeah/gave him a sherm stick and watched him while he hit it/soon as he lit it cuz was finished, now cock back the gat/little mask and gloves, let’s get to business/but they worry about Osama,” rhymes Q, confirming the worst fears of the Brian Williams type, who reports on national television that young black males are doping up and hiring even younger black males to do their dirty work. The only difference with Q’s reporting is that he captures the essence of the moment, the aggression as well as the adrenaline. He pairs the record with a slew of other diverse joints on H&C and makes us understand the psyche of a young male growing up on Figg Street. Q enables us to have compassion, sonically and lyrically. The final record on Habits & Contradictions that makes ScHoolBoy an overlooked recipient of the XXL Freshman award is “Blessed” featuring Kendrick Lamar. Q empowers us to be better artists and men on this record when he raps, “You see, my nigga just lost his son while I’m here huggin’ on my daughter/I grip her harder/kiss her on the head as I cry for a bit/thinkin’ of some bullshit to tell him, like/‘it’ll be okay. You’ll be straight, it’ll be aight.’ Well, fuck that shit, whatever you need, yo, I got it!/whether it’s money or some weed or puttin’ in work, fuck it, then I’m ridin’!” That one lyric, combined with the sonic masterpiece that is H&B, is the reason we award ScHoolBoy Q his final check!

So, we shall now give ScHoolBoy Q our nod. After all, he satisfies all the requirements and his music is undoubtedly ahead of its time. Q’s doing everything with his music, crafting not-so-subtle soundtracks, dabbling in ghetto reportage, and exhibiting signs of self-awareness, compassion, and heart that is becoming more and more elusive in music nowadays. ScHoolBoy, above all else, demonstrates on Habits & Contradictions that he is an artist, and not just a rapper.