Big Sean's Lines and Judging the Modern Rap Album Part II
The beauty of the end of the year isn't in the amount of parties or how the world looks back at the year that just passed by, but it's the amount of musical releases. The Grammy year begins when we start putting stockings on the fireplace. Some rappers therefore take this time to release albums or projects that will set the bar high and possibly grab some Grammy's in the process.
Let's look at an example of this phenomenon, Big Sean and Metro Boomin's Double or Nothing.
The amount of buzz around this album was palpable. There wasn't a single person in the rap community who didn't want to hear this become either record of the year or become rap's Hindenburg. In the end, it was neither.
Metro Boomin delivered amazing beats, with tracks such as Who's Stopping Me and No Hearts, No Love showcasing how he can sample almost anything and make it into a certified club banger. The problem was never that: it was Big Sean. The internet exploded in the amount of hate that they had for Big Sean and his punchlines on the album. While no one is criticizing some of his subject matter, which includes the typical things such as stealing your girl and being the best as well as atypical topics such as the water in Flint and his disdain for the struggle the black community has to go through, his punchlines are starting to get questionable.
Got a long d***, that s*** barely fit / Like O.J. glove, you must acquit
Sean, let's have a heart to heart right here, right now. I fight on a regular basis to put you in the top 5 rappers in the game today. When you write lines like these and don't throw them in the trash, you're not helping my argument. I know that you're still going to make money off this and that you're probably already onto another project, but I think it's time to prove to these doubters that you deserve one of the top places in hip-hop. Do you even want to be better than Kendrick?
My first rule when it comes to analyzing an album is to not take into account the artists previous works and go in with a clean slate. This gives the best opportunity for every rapper to get a fair opportunity at their album, whether their last album was great or not. The second rule goes as follows: Lyrics matter. Analyze them and give them the respect that they deserve. As a Big Sean fan, I can't give it the props and say that this album's lyrical ability deserves a lot of praise. It does have some bright spots on Who's Stopping Me and by the guest features, but that's not enough. If this was a throwaway mixtape like Untitled Unmastered by Kendrick Lamar or Drake's More Life, I would forgive it and give it a little bit more love. The wordplay can sometimes be amazing, but other times, the lines are so questionable that it makes me wonder why the producer didn't stop the track and tell Sean to change the line in the middle of the studio session.
Now for Big Sean as a rapper, he is arguably one of the best rappers in the world today. Bar nothing. He showed it on Dark Sky Paradise, I Decided, all of his freestyles and even on my favorite Big Sean song, No More Interviews. He's got better technique than every other mainstream rapper and has better punchlines than most other rappers when he tries. Maybe we're hard on him because we expect so much from him on a lyrical level? But that's not enough - we need to judge everything individually and give the lyrics the grading they deserve and not put an colossal amount of hate because you can. Let's respect the work put in.