There are only a few up-and-coming rappers within the present state of hip-hop who exude the kind of uncooked emotion that ScarLip brings within the sales space. The 23-year-old New York Metropolis native personifies the tough realities of a younger Black girl being raised within the gritty streets of the Bronx. ScarLip has confronted unimaginable trauma all through her life, and he or she makes use of these wounds as motivation to flip the script within the type of a blossoming rap profession. She poignantly pours her coronary heart out in her 2024 XXL Freshman freestyle.
With highly effective ardour delivered through her dynamic vocal means, ScarLip’s freestyle is a tattered but inspirational self-portrait painted throughout an a cappella canvas. The sheer ache in her voice matched with harrowing tales of an unfair life are masterfully crafted to evoke compassion from even essentially the most hardened souls. Alongside an underlying portrayal of self-driven hope, Scar joins the 2024 XXL Freshman Class with a vehemently visceral autobiography in rhyme type.
“As a Black lady within the system, I used to be taught to hate myself,” ScarLip painfully recollects earlier than rapping in regards to the horrors of foster care that she confronted following her mom’s premature loss of life when she was simply 12 years previous. “Raised in a Black dwelling, when you discuss again, they seize the belt/I used to be jumped from home to accommodate, you do not know how that made me felt/Two years later, I grabbed the knife, I used to be able to kill myself.”
Very like a phoenix rising from the ashes, ScarLip lays all of it on the road with fireplace and ferocity—the identical attributes which have carried her alongside her disadvantageous path to success. “You do not know sh*t about my life, cease saying that you just care/The place was you at when he was touchin’ me? None of y’all was there/The place was you at when my mom died? None of y’all was there/I used to have this spark in me, you see, they took that glow in me/Need me to let you know ’bout my life with out you even understanding me?” she spits.
As ScarLip’s lyrical ode to her unfavorable upbringing continues all through the verse, she shines a light-weight on the unhappy societal norms individuals in related conditions face all too usually. “Ain’t no pleased ending, ain’t no happiness for me/Informed my uncle I wish to rap, he advised me that was only a dream/And goals advised come true for Black ladies that appear to be me/So, therapist, please inform me, what do you see whenever you have a look at me?” Scar continues.
The Large Apple MC could be very a lot conscious that her darkish depictions of deep-rooted despair, whereas relatable to so many, set her other than different rhymers in a hip-hop panorama stuffed with lavish existence and wealthy flexes. When requested what she brings to the rap recreation as a part of this yr’s XXL Freshman Class, Scar says, “I am bringing a realness. I am bringing the ache, and I am bringing the ugly reality to XXL.”
She additionally understands the kind of influence her story can have on a sector of rap followers who can usually be neglected. “When you’re not assured in who you might be and the way you look, and there isn’t any voice for those that’s simply younger ladies that appear to be me, they are going to be insecure pondering they need to appear to be this and appear to be that,” ScarLip tells XXL on the Freshman cowl shoot this previous Might. “That is why it is at all times good when artists and musicians symbolize themselves confidently and as themselves as a result of it simply exhibits us we might be ourselves.”
Nonetheless, via all that, it is not essentially all battle and strife for ScarLip at this second in her blossoming profession. Actually, via her dirty bars and boisterous voice, ScarLip has been in a position to shortly align herself with a few of hip-hop’s most elite gamers of all time together with essential cosigns from Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent, Jadakiss and her high-profile mentor, Swizz Beatz.
After breaking via to the rap recreation’s mainstream in 2023, with “This Is New York,” ScarLip was invited to carry out the menacing Large Apple anthem in her dwelling borough alongside Snoop Dogg ultimately yr’s Hip-Hop 50 Dwell live performance at Yankee Stadium. The look made manner for ScarLip to slip on standout collabs with the likes of Benny The Butcher and Jadakiss, each of whom she matches lyrically on the music “Take ’Em Out.” Her most profitable music to this point, “No Statements,” has raked in practically 4.5 million Spotify streams and earned ScarLip her first look on Billboard’s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart.
Watch ScarLip cathartically overcome tragedy in her 2024 XXL Freshman freestyle beneath.
The Freshman situation is on newsstands all over the place. Along with interviews with the 2024 Freshman Class and producer Southside, there are additionally conversations with Sexyy Crimson, Ski Masks The Droop God, Mustard, Rubi Rose, Ken Carson, Ghostface Killah, Lola Brooke and extra, plus, a glance again at what the 2023 XXL Freshman Class has been doing. Additionally, there are tales on the continuing scamming and fraud plaguing hip-hop, and the way podcasters and streamers are enjoying a serious position in rap beef. The problem is on sale right here, together with some unique Freshmen merch.
Watch ScarLip’s 2024 XXL Freshman Freestyle
See the 2024 XXL Freshman Class Artists and Producer
