XXL Freshmen 2016 Cyphers Review

Ayyy, what's up? I got something small for you guys to hold you guys over until the next review drops, which should be soon. I actually found them quite interesting this year to be quite honest. But more to that later.

Desiigner, Lil Dicky & Anderson .Paak

Ok, so first off, no I did not spell anyone's name wrong, that's how they spell it. Alright so this is a weird cypher, let's get into this.
I was kinda hype for this cypher because people be sleeping on Desiigner and Lil Dicky. I honestly have only heard Anderson .Paak on Dr Dre's album but he's on six songs off that album so it's kinda lit.

Ok, so Desiigner goes first, and boy of boy, after his individual freestyle ( The infamous 'Timmy Turner' freestyle, that actually has a deeper meaning to it), I wasn't really expecting much, besides being entertained and I wasn't really disappointed. Here's the thing with Desiigner, besides the individual freestyle, which is also a hook to a song, he's not really very lyrical. He just makes stuff that somehow sounds good. He makes it work somehow. He just repeats the same thing over and over again and somehow it actually flows very well and has a nice sound to it. The one thing that cracks me up is that at one point he actually just starts mumbling for a line or two. It's lit though, he out here making that money of dumb stuff. He's living the dream. He kinda made this whole verse to a real song with a mini hook. I'm not mad at it.

Anderson .Paak is next and first of all, my mans outfit is so fire. Outfit game too strong.
I really like that you can actually understand what he is saying while he raps. He enunciates very well compared to Desiigner. I actually really like his flow. Some of his lines are straight garbage though honestly, they sound lit, but they aren't that great. But then he has some fire ones, such as:

    " Lemonade, Lemonade, baby I'm faithful.
      What more can I say?"

But then he follows it with:

     " I'm fuckin' a fleshlight to cope with the pain.
       What more can I say?"

I mean shout out to that Beyoncé line, that line is fire. Lemonade is a great visual album. But that fleshlight line? Come on fam, I'm all for funny ass lines like that, but I don't feel like he's trying to be funny. He's not a Lil Dicky. He's more serious though, it seems like. I feel like he's being honest about that fleshlight. Still a solid verse though, and much better than Desiigner's.
I also really like the line:

     "She starin' and wavin'
       I'm lookin' the other way.
       My mind on my paper, I don't like to slay her,
       But she Asian and thick so I might have to slay.
       Chop Suey for the side piece, Sushi for the main. "

My man's going in with the Asian references. But for real I really like those lines, he's talking about how this girl really wants his attention, but he doesn't want to give it to her, but she is his type and therefore irresistible. Also he's buying his side girl the less expensive food and saving the expensive stuff for his girl.

Now comes the real gem of this cypher, the man, the myth, the legend Lil Dicky. I don't know if you guys heard his Tim Westwood freestyle? Lemme link this freestyle here real quick, it's too good not to.

Ok, so Lil Dicky is mostly just know for his goofy ass raps and stuff like that, but he snaps on that freestyle. I know this review isn't about Lil Dicky's Tim Westwood freestyle but yeezus. He proves to everyone that he has to be taken seriously as a rapper and just isn't a goofball. Real quick, my favorite lines out of this freestyle have got to be:

    " I been skim milk chuggin' with a bitch, hot as asphalt,
       Bitch wonder why I'm cumin' quick, it's your ass fault."
I don't know why but I really like the way he says those two lines. Another thing that I like about Lil Dicky is that he is not scared to put himself out there and roast himself to make some good bars or tell a good story.. Anyways, back to the review of the cypher.

Due to the above freestyle I was very excited for his verse in the cypher. I expected him to snap on this and I was not let down. He completely destroys the cypher with his flow and his delivery. As always, there are levels to his lines. The standout lines for me are:

    " Kissin' on your baby, like the boy a politician,

      Spittin' out tough shit, overcooked chicken. "

Maybe I really like those lines because I work at a place that sells fried chicken, who knows? They are actually fire though. Lil Dicky really takes the cake in this cypher. His whole verse is honestly a single quotable. I think that out of all of the people on the XXL Freshmen list this year, Lil Dicky is by far the best. I think that we are gonna see big things from him in the next coming years.

So with this the first cypher is complete. I really like this cypher, it's a good group of rappers that flow pretty well together. Another part I really like is the fact that Desiigner coming in the with the hot ad-libs the whole time. It actually adds a great effect to the cypher. 

Denzel Curry, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Yachty, 21 Savage, Kodak Black

This cypher contains such a hype group of rappers. I'm a big fan of Curry, Uzi and Lil Yachty (Lil Boat), so I was excited for this. I knew as soon as I saw this line up, that the bars were not going to be lyrically the best, but they will be entertaining.

Denzel Curry comes in first and honestly I'm quite surprised that not that many really know about him. He is a very skilled rapper, who makes bangers. He has this fast delivery and flow, which he puts on full display for the cypher. He snaps on the beat and starts out the cypher with such a high energy that honestly it's hard for the other rappers on it to keep up with him. I like the line:

      "Squeeze two lemons together and all you really get is sour."

He puts an interesting spin on a common used phrase. His whole verse has a great flow and feel to it and it's a Denzel Curry verse in the truest sense.
I also really like his outfit, it's simple, but fire.

There's a reason I've been referencing people's outfit during this cypher, and that is because of Lil Uzi Vert. His outfit gets me so tight. Like homie what is that purse with a scarf and a towel on it? I mean it's kind of a lit outfit to be honest, but it's also absolutely redic. It's kind of hard to focus on his verse, because of the outfit, but you aren't really missing much. I mean it's not trash, it just idk, it's a very average verse. That might also just be because it's following Denzel's Curry verse, which is straight fire. I really like the lines where he gives the other rappers on the cypher shout outs. Their reactions are all on point after that. The more I listen to his verse the more I'm not mad at it, it's just unfortunate for him that he followed Denzel Curry. Funny story about this song, my friend and me were watching this cypher at the same time and he was under the influence and was geekin' out due to Lil Uzi's outfit choice.

After Lil Uzi Vert raps his share, the mans Lil Yachty aka Lil Boat comes in with a surprising speed and energy to his verse. I really like the energy he brings, although it seems like a very short verse compared to the last two, but that is because he comes in with such high speed at first.

I've never really listened to 21 Savage before this. I heard like one or two songs of his, but after one of my friends told me to peep his album today, I'm kind of interested. He looks super wild though, with all those face tats and whatnot. Like yikes homie. He has an interesting verse though, but I don't know if it's because of his lines or all of his ad-libs from the other rappers. It has an interesting flow to it. Part of me really likes this verse but the other part really dislikes it. I mean the belligerent rap part of me really likes it for the reckless lines and ad-libs but the intelligent rap liking part of me is just like meh. I mean the same can be said for all pretty much all of the rappers on this cypher. They You can look deep and see some wordplay in some of the verses though.
I am going to be listening to more of 21 Savage though, his new project sparked my interest, especially because it's produced by Metro Boomin', and you guys know how greatly appreciate the intros from DJ Mustard and Metro Boomin'.

Ok, last and certainly least, we have an outro verse from Kodak Black. I have only heard a couple of songs by him and I don't really have a clear opinion on him, but based on this verse he is absolute trash. Like yikes. Just yikes. Such a short verse and it's so bad. He starts off by dissing the beat, but while he's doing it he raps off beat. I think that kind of defeats the purpose of the diss. He has the shortest verse of the cypher and honestly gahbless that it's so short. I feel like if your verse is gonna be so short, it has to be straight fire. But this verse really isn't fire. I mean he has 8 lines, and he literally rhymes: ' beat, streets, eat, eat, week, three' that's really stretching it. I meant to each his own I guess. I'm not a fan of this verse, I'll need to give his mixtape a listen or something.

This cypher is actually very entertaining in my opinion, all of them are very unique and most of them rap with a certain energy. I think what really makes this one stand out is all the different ad-libs that they have. The last one only had Desiigner making ad-libs and that was great, but this one has all of them minus Denzel doing ad-libs and they all fit so well. So lyrically this one isn't the best, it is most def entertaining.

Dave East & G Herbo

I have never listened to these two before, I'm not going to lie. So I didn't know what to expect when I listened to this and I must say I was very pleasantly surprised.

Dave East snaps on this song. His lyricism is actually incredible. His wordplay is on point and is flow is impeccable. I'm actually very impressed with this verse. I really like the the lines right before he ends his verse:

    " Sports, Drugs and entertainment made me hit Cam up,
      I'm in Bermuda with a cougar gettin' my tan up."

Shout out to that old school Cam'ron reference and also ayyy to Bermuda chillen with cougars. My mans living the dream out here.

G Herbo comes in next and adds his own fire verse to an already great cypher. He effortlessly glides over the beat, delivering great lines, which are, just like Lil Dicky's lines, pretty much all quotables. I can't really pick out a single line that stands out to me, because it all works so great as a whole. I don't really want to take away from that.

They both rap about all they went through before finally making it big. This is an extremely good cypher with some deep and profound moments, sprinkled with some materialistic lines as well. I'm very impressed by this and in a way this kind of saved the XXL Freshmen list for me this year. It brought some depth into a group of hype beasts.