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Class Warfare: When XXL Freshmen Clash

Once a year, XXL magazine crowns 10 up-and-coming rappers they think are going to take it to the next level as “Freshmen.” The annual issue always features a photo of all 10 MCs (though in 2011 they chose 11) posing together, but that doesn’t mean things are all good. 2012 Freshmen alum Hopsin, while taking questions from fans on video social media site Ustream, says he’s doesn’t like Big Sean or Mac Miller. “Heck no…[I'm] not a fan,” the Strange Music rapper told viewers. Fighting words. But this isn’t the first time XXL Freshmen have fired shots at each other. Click on for more cases of class warfare.

(Photos from left: Cindy Ord/Getty Images, John Ricard/BET)

J. Cole vs. Diggy Simmons

Diggy — whose XXL look came a year before his debut album Unexpected Arrival, — took shots at his fellow Freshman cover alumnus J. Cole on a track that leaked yesterday, April 1. Titled “What You Say to Me,” the song responds to rumors that Cole’s “Purple Rain” was about Diggy’s sister Vanessa Simmons, and also, perhaps, took issue with Cole’s name-drop on “Grew Up Fast” (“You n—-s not Russell, you more Diggy/Me, I’m more Biggie”). Diggy struck back with a vengeance, rapping, “Heard you lying on my sis, tellin’ people that you hit/When ya album drops, I’ma hit you with your brick/So I’ma bomb first on you since you wanna riff.”

(Photos: WENN.com; Frank Micelotta/PictureGroup)

Danny Brown vs. Mac Miller

Don’t expect a collab between 2012 alum Danny Brown and 2011’s Mac Miller anytime soon. Brown told Rolling Stone last December, “He’s the worst guy around. Don’t get me started… If I see him, I’m just going to have to apologize to him, like, ‘Man, I just want to apologize for hating you so much. Because I’m not going to stop. You’re probably a cool guy. I don’t feel violent in any way, but I really hate you. I hate your music, man.’”

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