Saw this on Wikipedia and thought it was pretty interesting.

I knew about some of these but not all of em. A lot of big names on this. It’s no wonder some of them lists ended up being ass.

2010:

Drake: Respectfully declined and felt he was chosen too late in his career.

Nicki Minaj: Respectfully declined.
Michael Barber: Respectfully declined.

2011:

Vado: Respectfully declined and felt he was chosen too late in his career.

Tyler, the Creator: Respectfully declined.

2012:

ASAP Rocky: Respectfully declined. Schedule was too slim due to touring.

2014:

Young Thug: XXL claims he never showed up to the photoshoot.

2015:

ILoveMakonnen: Not responsive to XXL.

PartyNextDoor: Not responsive to XXL.

2016:

Tory Lanez: Declined as he believed he was chosen too late in his respective career.

Post Malone: Stated he was tired and was not up to flying to New York for the photoshoot. XXL editor-in-chief Vanessa Satten claimed Post's publicist stated that Post did not want to be boxed in as a hip hop artist.

2017:

Young M.A: Felt beyond the list. She asked to have a solo cover but they disagreed and said that she needed more attention to her name before that could happen.

YFN Lucci: YFN Lucci initially refused to play music for XXL. He later changed his mind days before the shoot but it was too late.

Cardi B: XXL was not sure if Cardi had a better television career or rap career at the time and felt she was leaning more towards television.

Famous Dex: XXL stood away from adding Famous Dex after there was evidence shown that he beat up his girlfriend. They further spoke on XXXTentacion's addition to the 2017 list (as it was controversial), saying that although he was accused of beating up his ex-girlfriend, the incident was not caught on camera, XXXTentacion had not been found guilty, and that he was arguably having a major influence on his generation.

2018:

Lil Skies: On Instagram Live, he explained that he respectfully declined due to XXL apparently telling him that he would be the 10th Spot Freshman before the voting process even began. Although he respected some decisions made on the 2018 list, he claims that the list was mostly rigged.

Rich the Kid: He "happily declined" after hearing that the reason XXL asked him to be on it was because Lil Skies declined the offer.

2019:

Juice Wrld: Respectfully declined.

Benny the Butcher: He was asked by Jay-Z to not accept because Jay thought declining would be for the better.

2020:

Pop Smoke: Pop Smoke agreed to be on the cover but he died before he could attend the shoot. XXL did everything to try and add him on the cover to honor him, but Pop Smoke's team asked them not to do so. Although XXL was not able to add him on the cover, they were able to add an unreleased interview to honor him in the issue.

Don Toliver: Don Toliver only wanted to be on the cover and did not want to take part in other aspects of the list, such as the freestyles and cyphers.

Lil Tecca: Respectfully declined.

2021:

$not: Respectfully declined because he felt like other artists needed it more.

Kenny Mason: Respectfully declined.

2022:

Ken Carson: Declined the list because "Destroy Lonely" could not be added.

Yeat: Respectfully declined.

Key! Missed tf out

Does Don Toliver not write his own stuff? Weird reason to give XXL

YB

Von

Chloehotline?

ken is real af

who the f*** is Michael Barber?

Post Malone reason is so lame

XXL always way too late on these artists

also, gonna need a source on XXL tryna get Thug for the 2012 list, since he hadn’t even dropped 1017 Thug yet at that point

and i still got stamina

reaching out to rich the kid as freshman in 2018 lmfao

he’d been popping for like 4 years atp

he not really a rapper he would look like yk osiris up there

Jay asking Benny to not be on it is kinda weird

2019 was one of the more decent lists too

Somebody had to have write this

looks like written by some rap nerd

its wikipedia after all

No Chimp1?

2022:

Cordova

Lancey Foux

2022 - neph & pap

he‘s not the type of dude to freestyle some crazy bars yk. He could probably sing but idk if he‘s that good of a singer without autotune

So Hov asks Benny to decline but then turns down Benny when he asked him to do a feature for Burden Of Proof?

Jay pisses me off sometimes man. He’s just like Eminem, they claim to hold so much respect for rap as an art but never put their money where their mouths are

I wanna know who disrespectfully declined

What about Cordova

xxl = internet explorer