J. Pinder returns to the Freshest in the Northwest list, falling to the other half of the top 5, and still making the list initially at #6 based on the buzz building around his music industry connections. Last year, timing was Pinder’s best friend when he actually battled Macklemore for the #1 spot, falling just a hair short after being fresh off the release of his debut album Careless and national tours with Talib Kweli and Black Milk. He followed the album with a remixed version mixed by DJ Skee called the Careless Redux released late last year. Since then, Pinder has stepped out of the spotlight and has been in the studio. While as M-Pyre shared, a rapper’s studio time may be as interesting to the public as watching paint dry, Pinder has done a magnificent job of teasing meetings and sessions with some very big names such as Musiq Soulchild, Kendrick Lamar, Tha Bizne$$, and trips to Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment offices from many trips to Los Angeles. Whenever he does leak something sampled or not it’s covered everywhere and he almost followed in Macklemore’s footsteps of being named by XXL as a Freshman earlier this year.
However, another artist, Sol, who is also off-cycle right now because of a recent nine month worldwide vacation, quickly conflicted the panel. While not being as obvious of a choice as moving Sol past Xperience there appeared to be reason to move him past Pinder as well and to take his spot at #6. The two rappers returned to the Freshest in the Northwest list from last year and have used instagram to keep their fans watching for them. Pinder shared photos with some very big industry connects while Sol shared photos of international locale. Everyone on the panel admitted following Sol’s instagram more closely and despite Sermon’s push to keep Pinder at #6, the panel convincingly voted Sol past him in a 5-1 vote. At this point Sol has convincingly passed up two rappers to jump from #8 to #6 and now sets his sights on the Top 5. Will Sol grab a Top 5 slot and what names will he run into when he gets there? Who is in your Top 5? Join in the conversation on Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #FreshestintheNW
#6 – Sol – https://www.respectmyregion.com/sol-hits-8-on-freshest-in-the-northwest/
#7 – J. Pinder –
#8 – Xperience – https://www.respectmyregion.com/xperiences-hits-8-freshest-in-the-northwest/
#9 – Thaddeus David – https://www.respectmyregion.com/thaddeus-david-freshest-in-the-northwest-10/
#10 – Neema – https://www.respectmyregion.com/neema-freshest-in-the-northwest-10/
