Big Sean finds his inner zen but does that equal good music?

I’ll start by saying I listened to this album multiple times to make sure I got it right. Big Sean was one of my favorite artists during the blog era. His “hashtag flow” had a moment that effected hip-hop and how people rhymed. With that being said I took a look at the album cover and knew this album would be different from anything Sean has to done up to this date. The picture is a picture of what I would say is Big Sean levitating and having an outter body experience with light coming from his body. With all of his interviews leading up I thought this album would be about his latest experiences and how it changed him. I was sorta right and sorta wrong.

He starts with an intro “Pressure”. Which is voices of people asking him for money and other things. Its clear Sean has been dealing with a lot of emotion. One thing is for sure I don’t want to hear Sean with Hit-Boy anymore. Its starting to sound forced. On “Iconic” the beat is ok. He raps with an upbeat flow but then gives us a lazy chorus. I feel like this song had potential but nah. Its weird because in the next song “Typecast” kind’ve has the same bop to a certain extent but is just better. It’s funny that I thought this album would be different than Sean’s others and “Break The Cycle” featuring Charlie Wilson. The song is about you guessed it…. breaking the cycle. Great message but what is a common thing on this album I don’t think the music greatness doesn’t match the message greatness. I mean “The Rock” left a voicemail that made the album this song was supposed to be a lot better.

Sean gets back in his bag with “Who You Are (Superstar)” a radio song we expect from him. “Yes” is blah. The beat is fire. Never want to hear Sean and Gunna on the same track especially if Gunna is going to rap lazy with no autotune. On “Apologize” it starts with a clip of Kanye saying “We live!”. This song is about him and Kanye’s relationship. Dope concept, beat and some of the lyrics were good. I just think on the record where Big Sean tells his side of what has happened we would like to hear him “RAP”. It sounds like a gospel diss song. Which tells me again that Sean is another space. I can’t hate on a song dedicated to his son on “On Up” so I won’t.

Let’s jump to “This N That” which sounds like a Khaled track that he threw on the album. I say that because Bryson Tiller and Kodak on the same song is VERY random. I don’t want to sound like I hate everything on this album I liked “Precision”. What I come to realize about what I like about Big Sean is that I like him on tracks where the production can make up for his flow which at time can sound like he doesn’t want to be there.

Rating: 6.9/10

Overall I think this album was him trying to do something different. Unfortunately I don’t think it hit the mark he was aiming for. We are hearing he is going through something but we only hear about the end result. He gives us nothing in-between. The beats and the lyrics also just weren’t cohesive. I don’t mind positive Sean but he hasn’t found a way to put it on wax and make it palatable. It was a while before we got this but I hope he comes back soon with fire.