G.O.O.D. Music rapper Big Sean has been in the game for some time now. Known early on for his Finally Famous mixtape series, and more recently his standout effort Detroit, he’s now gearing up to release his third studio album Dark Sky Paradise next week. Sean has yet to win over the tougher critics with his rapping ability, especially after dropping two average albums at best, but we’ve seen enough evidence over the past year that leads us to believe he is about to reach his highest point yet.
So, what’s different this time around? Let’s start with Sean’s undeniable improvement in the bar department over the past year or so. Sure, Sean was always capable of dropping a fire verse here and there, but he never kept them consistent enough for us to believe it was anything more than a broken clock being right twice a day. Let’s take a look at some of his recent offerings:
Production. When a couple of those tracks above dropped last year (Jit/Juke & 4th Quarter), the two other tracks that accompanied them were the hit-single “IDFWU”, and the Mike Will-produced “Paradise” — at this point it was evident that Sean was taking it up a notch with his beat selection. His previous two LP’s boasted much production from No ID, who is great in his own right, but his sound wasn’t the ideal match for the type of flows that Big Sean brings to the table. Don’t get us wrong, those two albums had some great cuts on them, but for a rapper like Sean, sticking with mainly one producer just doesn’t suit his skill set. This time around, he decided to spread the production around a bit more between the likes of Mike Will, DJ Mustard, Vinylz, T-Minus, Key Wane, DJ Dahi, and even some help from Kanye West. We believe this is another key component that will take this LP above his previous works
What we’ve heard thus far. Big Sean has had a successful singles career to say the least, with joints like “My Last”, “Dance (ASS)”, “Beware“, etc. — but this go-around he hit the biggest homerun of his career with “IDFWU”. And how did he follow that up? He drops the Drake and Kanye-assisted “Blessings” where he arguably out-shined both (in all fairness Ye had a very brief verse). Aside from those two singles, we’ve heard the short version of “Paradise” (posted above), and we just heard the two pre-order singles “One Man Can Change The World” & “Win Some Lose Some” just the other night. We’ll just cut to the chase here, Sean is 5 for 5 so far in our opinion. Another check on the list.
Guest verses. It’s one thing to drop hot verses on your own tracks, but to consistently steal the show on other artists’ records is a whole ‘nother thing. After being man-handled on “Control” by Kendrick Lamar despite having a solid verse himself, Sean made sure to step it up whenever he had the chance to be featured on another guy’s track from there on out. Let’s see what Sean has done lately:
Held his own with some of Detroit’s finest.
Washed Meek and Ferg, respectively.
I put everything in motion like I-N-G.
Kanye. This time around, the label-head Mr. West seems to be fully on board with a Big Sean release for the first time. Ye has been known to not hold his artists’ hands, choosing to let them grow and figure it out on their own, lending advice only when he feels necessary. The only G.O.O.D. artist we’ve seen him fully back recently was Pusha T who is already polished, and we saw how good that album turned out, no pun intended. It appears that Yeezy is finally backing Sean in the same way on this third LP, which is the final nail in the coffin for us. This one should be THE one. Don’t say we didn’t tell you so.
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