If the 2014 XXL Freshman list was more like a yearbook, the award for most charismatic (a great quality for a MC to possess) would go to Troy Ave. Representing Brooklyn, the raw rhymer walks through the borough in which he was born and bred on the latest episode of Elliott Wilson’s The Truth.
Most cite Troy’s true-to-the-roots New York sound and gritty, street appeal as main factors in his early success, but in doing so, his blue collar work ethic often goes unmentioned. An unwillingness to waver his mission in any way possible or bow dow to the so-called “powers that be” are main reasons that the bubbling rapper is respected.
“Yo gotta remember [that] n***as can’t tell me how to create no sh*t,” Troy explained. “They told me that I wouldn’t get on by talking about street sh*t in New York. It’s not gonna work. They told me that.”
Though Troy never specified exactly who “they” were, it’s implied that it was XXL. He continued, “No, not record companies… magazine publications. And then turn around, and I’m on the cover of that magazine publication.”
Hear Troy Ave speak more in the video below.
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Photo: YouTube
