Nino Paid – 2025 XXL Freshman Freestyle, Interview and More

TRUTH ON BEING AN XXL FRESHMAN: “Honestly, for me, from where I come from, it feel like a dream come true. I’m not sure about anybody else, but for me, it feel like a dream come true because my city don’t make it to the XXL Freshman list. To make it out of Landover, Maryland, it felt like it was almost impossible, but I did it.

[After my Freshman pitch], I super left it up to God ’cause I was definitely not confident after that. I found out [that I made the Freshman Class while] I was at the airport. I was leaving Cali on my way to New York, about to board the plane, and my manager got a call, and then he just walked up to me. He was like, ‘Congratulations!’ And I was like, ‘For what?’ And he was like, ‘You made XXL.’ I was like, ‘Oh sh*t.’ It was a crazy feeling right before I got on the plane.

I feel like [XXL Freshman is] not always for everybody, but it is one of the stages you gotta come onto if you on that path to be the next big thing, if you on the path to make your career something. I feel like I needed this. Not even for y’all—for me. For my accolades. For my achievements back home.

[The haters] can’t say nothing. They ain’t here. I be in the comments looking [at the hate], but I laugh sometimes, and I just shrug it off. I’m fresh. I’m new. I’m literally a freshman. I feel as though it hit harder if I came in and got it my first go-round because I’m a freshman right now. Come back next year, I’m going to be a sophomore.

[It’s important to] connect with your peers in your career path, especially for rappers like me who are out the box a lot of times. I feel as though it’s something I’ve got to do if I want to get to the next place I want to get to.

I don’t really try to go out and meet new rappers and all that other stuff. So, it’s good for us to come out here, and meet our peers, and see what they’ve got going on. See we’re all on the same level and all moving up together. I feel like it’s important for us to see that.”—Jordan Lo