The Smartest Freshmen

In my experience, sometimes the smartest kids are the ones who don’t show off in class. They might just sit in the back of the room, possibly catching up on sleep because the lessons come easy to them. They’re natural geniuses. This is where Mickey Factz and B.o.B. classify.
Since the XXL Freshman issue came out, and the 10 rappers gained incredible fame, these two have the least amount of details as to when their debut albums will actually come out. Smart move. It can be argued that the year of 2009 belongs to Cudi and Drake. Both have hits under their names, and both are heavily anticipated. Drake has the mainstream, while Cudi have more of the indie scene. No offense to Wale, but ‘Chillin’ is nowhere on the same radar as ‘Day n’ Nite’ or ‘Best I Ever Had.’
Ace Hood is of course, Ace Hood, and Curren$y and Cory Gunz are still waiting on someone to offer them a decent deal. Asher had a decent release and gained a lot of fans with his constant touring, Blu is gaining even more underground credibility, and Charles Hamilton is nowhere to be found. So what have Mickey Factz and B.o.B. been doing?
Mickey Factz has been touring all over the place, making great connections with a lot of great artists. Slaughterhouse, KRS-One, and Lupe Fiasco to name a few. He’s been tearing up the Rock The Bells tour and even going to Japan. He’s building the brand, making sure that when he finally comes out with the album, he has enough core fans to guarantee a good release, and even putting out a song or two once and awhile.
B.o.B. has been the most quiet, staying behind the scenes perfecting his sound. After putting out his mixtape, “B.o.B. vs. Bobby Ray”, people are as excited as ever to finally hear his new album. He’s also been doing a lot of low key features with new artists like Willy Northpole, and artist of other genres such as Cobra Starship. Making special appearances on Asher and Cudi’s “The Great Hangover Tour,” also helps. His work with Reebok and the video for ‘Put On’ are also giving him even more momentum, with the video playing all over video stations like MTVU and MTV Jams.
Mickey Factz is becoming the savior of New York hip hop, and B.o.B. is becoming Outkast’s new prophet. Both plan to have their projects out sometime in 2010, most likely after everyone else’s buzz has cooled off. With methods that seemingly won’t fail, these two are sure to bring us two of the best albums to start off the new decade. Not to mention The Urbanian’s favorites, Mike Posner and Big Sean should be releasing projects around the same time, so we should be headed into a storm of really, really good music.