Did Yeat Turn Down XXL's 2022 Freshman Class For A Collab With The Minions?

It's impossible to debate who's next up in hip-hop without mentioning Yeat, so many fans were confused when he was left out of XXL's latest Freshman Class. But it appears he opted for a bigger opportunity instead.

Yeat is a 22-year-old rapper often viewed as a leader in the new "SoundCloud 2.0" movement. Coming out of Portland, he began earning mainstream attention in 2021 thanks to his dizzying flow and wacky vocabulary heard on songs like "Sorry Bout That," "Gët Busy" and more.

Not to mention the major co-signs he's earned: Drake, Lil Uzi Vert, Gunna, Earl Sweatshirt.

With all this activity, Yeat seemed like an easy lock for XXL's 2022 Freshman Class, but he wasn't listed alongside Nardo Wick, SoFaygo and others, leading some people to assume that he declined the look.

Now, there seems to be more context on why Yeat didn't do the XXL cover. He was too busy working on a surprise collab with the Minions franchise! Yup, Universal Pictures trusted Yeat to record the official trailer song – titled "Rich Minion" – for its new 'Minions: The Rise of Gru' movie.

According to Lyrical Lemonade founder Cole Bennett, he was the one who convinced the Minions team to tap Yeat for the tribute track. "I'm doing a trailer for the Minions movie and I convinced them to let me use Yeat for the soundtrack," he tweeted.

One of the best lines from the song is when Yeat raps, "I just pulled up in a Tonka with all of the minions, we takin' a picture!" He also claims the franchise paid him a quick million for the sauce.

Yeat isn't the first rapper to (reportedly) curve XXL. Back in 2018, NAV wrote a whole diss track taking aim at the magazine and its "Freshman List," as he sings, "I was made for this s**t, rookie of the year / I wouldn't show up for the Freshman List / Your swag expired, you ain't fresh like this!"

He aired them out for allegedly not giving him a nod after he refused to play unreleased music for the editors.