Videos by According2HipHop
For years, fans have complained about the XXL Freshman Cypher, which they feel has steadily declined in quality. On Monday (July 27th) the 2026 class tried to change their mind.
What Happened In The Cypher?
The first cypher includes La Reezy, Hurricane Wisdom, Sosocamo, Miles Minnick, Chris Patrick, and Slayr. Riding off a beat by Skepta, Tecca, Osamason, and Lancey Foux producer Jay Trench, the six rappers take turns spitting bars.
Things open with Chris Patrick spitting about the Knicks and his come up. Then La Reezy steps up for some fast flow, spitting about being the black Drew Brees. Sosocamo hops on to echo Future’s flow on Drake’s “Run To Atlanta,” before splitting off for his own lines. Usually autotuned rapper Slayr showed off his skills without the help of production, spitting speedy bars. Then Miles Minnick, a Christian rapper, rapped about the lord. Hurricane Wisdom pulled an XXXTENTACION and cut the beat to rap his verse.
According to the official XXL YouTube page, the video has around 30K views at the time of this writing. Last year, the cyphers ended up with 1.5M and over 550K views respectively.
The next cypher is set to feature Belly Gang Kushington, Trap Dickey, Babyfxce E, YK Niece, Skrilla, and Trim.
2026 XXL FRESHMAN CYPHER
— Kurrco (@Kurrco) July 27, 2026
👤 SLAYR
👤 CHRIS PATRICK
👤 SOSOCAMO
👤 LA REEZY
👤 HURRICANE WISDOM
👤 MILES MINNICK
▫️ FEATURING DJ DRAMA
OUT NOW 🚨 pic.twitter.com/MqIS6zgVfw
How Did Fans React?
Social media had mixed feelings about the cypher. Many people signaled out Chris Patrick’s opening performance as a clear highlight.
“Electric verse!,” Joey from Gotham Hip Hop posted.
“no clue who any of these guys are, very middling performances although i did think that Chris Patrick killed it and i enjoyed Miles Minnick’s verse. the bigger issue is that this is like the 2nd set of cyphers in a row where the mixing is complete dogs***, who are XXL hiring?,” another user posted.
“Chris Patrick slid,” another user posted.
But as a whole, people didn’t seem to vibe with the cypher.
“this is the worst cypher I’ve watched in my entire life I’m not even joking,” one user posted.
“here go slayr talking about crispy chicken u can’t make dis s*** up,’ another user posted.
“Idk how this s*** just keep getting worse worse every year wtf….,” another user posted.
Of course, some people actually liked the rapping, their issue was with the beat.
“I listened to the full cypher and as a 96 boy I’m a keep it a buck on each rapper. Although fair to mention the beat was a**. 1st guy- garbage no flow no bars. 2nd guy- decent although McDonald’s bar was wack. 3rd guy- a** just nothing. 4th guy- decent. 5th guy- actually had bars,” one user posted while ranking the performances.
“Read the comments to save my time but it’s not a**. The beat so bad, Chris, La rezzy and slayr did well. The bars Chris and La rezzy had were good, yall out here saying slayr was good but his lyrics weren’t anything special he did however have the best flow… felt like the rest were struggling to ride that sorry a** beat. Last dude was trash, short a** verse, no bars, couldn’t ride that beat so he cut that s*** and still didn’t say s***,” another user posted.
We’ll see how people feel about the second cypher.
