Rich Amiri has admitted that he decided against participating in XXL‘s Freshman freestyle series, but disputes the magazine’s reasoning behind his no-show.

The rising Boston rapper was included in XXL‘s 2024 Freshman class alongside the likes of Cash Cobain, 4Batz and That Mexican OT, but didn’t deliver a freestyle like the rest of the group.

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In their latest issue, the magazine claimed that an unnamed artist “got so shook over the cypher” and left the shoot, offering a “pathetic” excuse for his last-minute departure.

“The shoots didn’t go off without a hitch, though,” XXL‘s editor-in-chief Vanessa Satten wrote. “One Freshman got so shook over the cypher that he ditched the shoot literally five minutes before it was going to be filmed.

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“He pretended to go to his car for clothing, hopped in and got outta there. He and his team then refused to answer our or their publicist’s calls. It would’ve been nice for them to return one call.”

Satten added: “I’ve never seen anything like that before. Some of you will probably laugh at what he did because you think he’s poppin’ anyway, so it ain’t nothin’, but I think it was a pathetic way to handle things. And it definitely caused some havoc and felt like a ruthless way to conduct business.”

Satten also revealed that she and her team debated removing said artist from the Freshman class altogether, but ultimately decided to keep them in.

“We did receive an apology from the Freshman’s manager a few days later, but never heard from the artist directly,” she added. “Ultimately, we hate to see a Freshman back out of a cypher because this is what they do for a living: they rap. There is no specific length the verse is supposed to be, but still, that’s too hard for some of them.

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“It feels like they should be able to get through a verse, but as the years go on, more and more artists struggle with this part of the Freshman.”

Rich Amiri later appeared to confirm that it was him and took issue with the magazine’s version of events.

“@XXL why y’all lying!!!!” he wrote in a since-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter), before saying: “[I didn’t] pretend to go for no clothes i just walked out.”

The 2024 Freshman class made headlines again earlier this week when Cash Cobain distanced himself from his freestyle and apologized for his performance.

Speaking with radio/podcast host Angela Yee, the Queens, New York-bred hitmaker said: “That ain’t me. I’m sorry, y’all. I’m sorry, Hip Hop. The freestyle is not me, man. I just like to make music in the studio.”

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He added: “I just didn’t prepare for it at all. I just showed up.”

Cobain’s freestyle has yet to be released, but a snippet of it can be heard in a trailer for the series.