Across his first solo album since 2017, Sean grapples with the reality that the same celebrity life he chased for so long also led to him pondering suicide. When Detroit 2 takes Sean’s examination of fame to its gruesome, but logical conclusion, it’s a genuine shock. The hero’s tale that got him here - being plucked from obscurity by Kanye West after a well-timed freestyle - is inextricable from his legend. The word defines his discography: three volumes of Finally Famous mixtapes, Finally Famous (the album), Hall of Fame. The narrative thrust of Big Sean’s career has always been about his proximity to fame. Starting in 2011, Big Sean built a hit-making mini-empire using a brand forged from populace-pleasing punchlines, expensive production, pop-star-boyfriend good looks, and a personality that made him easy to dismiss but more fun to root for. On “Lucky Me,” Sean devotes a full quarter of his verse to revealing that he had a heart disease at 19, which he says was healed by taking magnesium from a holistic doctor, ending with the lyric “That’s how I know that Western medicine weak.” It’s a riveting pivot, no matter where you land on the wellness question. Alfredo Bowman, a late herbalist who claimed he had a cure for AIDS), Sean’s opened third eye, and even a stray anti-vaxxer line. For 71 minutes, Sean builds a monument to holistic healing, alternative medicine, and religion. The first one resides on the opening bar of “Why Would I Stop?” when he proclaims: “This shit the antidote, this the ‘cure cancer’ flow/Stop a pandemic and the globe.” As of the time of publication for this post, cancer and the global pandemic are still raging, despite the arrival of Sean’s new flow, but he nevertheless makes his point.ĭetroit 2- the sequel to Sean’s critically acclaimed 2012 mixtape - is a self-help book disguised as a major-label rap album. In fact, Sean hawks so many cures on his latest album that it’s hard to keep track. Big Sean has a cure for what’s ailing the world.
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