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Review Summary: I want to like Big Sean Big Sean has been a force to be reckoned with for a decade now. Some heavy features catapulted him along with great initial recordings of fresh flows. However, some who labeled him with all the talent and potential in the world, year by year, are still waiting for him to succeed on those expectations and create a classic album. 2020 could be the year, but it seems like Big Sean stuck with the past, not living up to all those expectations of growth. We can probably all agree the talent for superstardom really exists since Kanye as well as Eminem sold us so hard on it and some early records showed clear promise. In a week where Big Sean goes number 1 on the billboard competing with a joke like Tekashi 69 can we really call that an accomplishment?
The album starts out with an average track and continues with some songs flipping beats like a Travis Scott record, but it is coming up short. "Deep Reverence" finds Big Sean going all out paying homage to Nipsey and it works, it's the second best song on the album. The main problem is he's still using flows from five years ago or older and in 2020 to say it is dated is not enough. I liked Big Sean when I was in my young 20s and now that I'm 30 I don't want to hear the old stuff anymore, I want growth, I'm not in the club anymore. It creates the idea that maybe these songs literally are five years old. Big Sean has been making Detroit themed material for so long these could be old B-Sides, the smell test is mandatory with this album.
Unfortunately, it doesn't get better, he often doesn't even switch the flow up on consecutive songs. "Harder Than My Demons" and "ZTFO" (short for Zenned the *** Out) contribute to the feeling of same flows, slightly different beats, but at least with positive lyrics. These songs could literally be on Dark Sky Paradise, which came out five years ago. Another thing that makes this album so bad is the 808 beats that are the same beats he has done his whole career. A great example of this is "Respect It" feat Young Thug, the drum tracks are the same things you've heard in one thousand songs, and Young Thug's feature at least provides some break from Big Sean, but it doesn't last long enough.
Much like "Deep Reverence", "The Baddest" is also enjoyable, while being the fifteenth song on the album. The beat is fun and Big Sean sounds like he's having gleeful artistic vision instead of rapping about how no one is going to tell him he's not great. None of that can save the album. It took almost fourteen bad songs and some skits to get to the second positive moment and then the album closes out with nothing else of value to add. Lil Wayne near the end of the album couldn't help, nothing could help. 2020 is the year to finally give up on Big Sean if you haven't. The guy does have talent and skill, it just never translated into adequate songwriting. So yes, thanks to Tekashi 69's drop-off, Big Sean got a #1 album, but he doesn't deserve it.
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Album Rating: 2.0
I'm sorry to the people who like this, I just have grown off of it.
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I agree, but it is the worst album I've heard this year and last year. and nah some of us like him, i used to like him, just don't want what he used to do
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you skimmed a 21 song album in less than 5 minutes?
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quote "it is the worst album i've heard this year" i haven't heard what you have heard lol
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Nice review, could use a proofread though and some modifiers here and there.
Like here -- "2020 could be the year, but it seems like Big Sean is still stuck on mediocrity, not living up to potential."
Living up to *his* potential.
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Thank you dettlaff, and I'd be happy to change that part, I just finished proofreading and editing it, but that part did not strike as weird to me. To me it's grammatically correct but if it throws people off I'll fix it. Hopefully the other stuff you saw is what I just changed.
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
criticism is more than welcome here!
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no negs but idk how anybody who liked old big sean wouldn't like this, honestly thought it was a joke review when i saw the 1.5 followed by "i liked big sean's old stuff."
i feel the polar opposite: was never a big fan of I Decided even though it had a couple fire tracks, and this album is finally actually good. also don't know how anybody is trashing his flow, the dude can clearly rap and the flows definitely don't sound recycled unless you exclusively listened to big sean. the flows are all over the place on this.
this dude gets way more hate than he deserves but i'll admit he always drops some cringey lines and this one is no exception but it seems the least cringe of all his stuff, except for all the anti-vax stuff on it.
all in all this album was pretty lit, feels like the most polished mixtape you could ever imagine, not as "album-y" as I Decided and it's better for it.
also ZTFO is not about Xanax, it's "zen the fuck out." honestly i have come full circle from trashing big sean to now appreciating his positive message, lots of good stuff on this, Full Circle is great.
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I do like how he talks of meditation and the positive stuff, but the flows and beats to go with them i can't get behind anymore, all I can explain to you why I don't like this, but liked his old stuff is that I no longer like the older styles because they are from when i was in my younger 20s at the clubs and now i'm 30 and i don't want to hear what Big Sean sounded like in 2012 or 2015 anymore. i want growth.
thanks for the feedback and i will make sure to change that about ztfo in the review! thank you!
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"To me it's grammatically correct but if it throws people off I'll fix it."
Well it isn't technically correct because whose potential are we talking about? If someone ever says "He lived up to his potential" or "Played to his potential" it would sound a lot stranger if you just said "He lived up to potential". Even though you prefaced it by referring to an individual, without the qualifier of 'their' potential, it's too vague.
At any rate glad to see you're open to criticism - that's a trait of a great writer. I had to get my content slammed and do more research into the English language before I could improve.
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I've been getting slammed on Sputnik for 15 years lol i edited the review already and changed a lot of that area but i need to review what you are teaching me right now and learn from that regardless. Might still have to fix that area of the review too. Thanks for the help! And thanks for the compliment!
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The rewrite has issues too tho.
"stuck on the past"
Stuck *in* the past is the expression.
"living up to all the expectation"
Should be plural *expectations" since you prefaced with 'all' which suggests plural -- 'all', more than 1. Would read better as "living up to that expectation".
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No worries brother, I'm just being really nitpicky here too. Not sure why you got 2 votes against your review - it's much better than a lot of the stuff I read on here daily. I'll give you a positive feedback thing to balance it out a bit.
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I actually just fixed both of those! Lol i am trying to get back into writing most of my reviews are from 2005 to 2008
Also i prefer nitpicky!
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I actually just fixed both of those! Lol i am trying to get back into writing most of my reviews are from 2005 to 2008
Also i prefer nitpicky!
Also talked about how the expectation i had was for him to eventually create a classic 5/5 album
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I never liked this guy even back in the early 2010s. I always thought he was boring and uninteresting for a mainstream rapper.
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
his music was a lot of fun at the clubs, him and kanye and jay z were hype
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To be honest most mainstream rappers are boring and are just copying other people. So that's nothing new. But sometimes there's the occasional jam that's pretty good and you can overlook that. But I never listen to whole albums from these guys
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I don't really agree with that at all, in fact it's a completely 100% ignorant statement. I can name three dozen mainstream rappers who have made 4.5 and 5 albums without having to think about it. Wow...
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What's the cut off for mainstream though? Because if we count Nas as mainstream, I can see that statement as being true
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