SPOTLIGHT: BIG SEAN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW W/ CHAMP MAG

 

 

 

 

 

 

BIG SEAN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW W/ CHAMP MAG
CHAMP MAGAZINE
Nathan “Hollywood” Adom

CHAMP: Now you hail from the D. Let’s talk about Big Sean when coming up in the D how was life for you out there homey?

Big Sean: Growing up in Detroit was crazy. I grew up in the hood all my life but my moms tried to shadow me away from that. She shielded me away from that by paying for private school when I was young and just did all she could to keep me out of trouble so it was kinda good because I saw the best of both worlds. I would go to school with like rich kids that were like different colors; white, black, yellow, and I’d come back to the hood. I really saw the best of both worlds and it really prepared me for the world at a young age. The D is full of all craziness. A lot of people hear stories about Detroit and it’s the worst city in the world, and it’s really not. It is street, it is hood, and it’s also culturally diverse with some of the richest neighborhoods in Michigan. It’s definitely an experience and I really try to incorporate it in my music as much as I can.

CHAMP: At what age did you decide you wanted to start making music?

Big Sean: I started making music when I was 12. I came up like in the Bad Boy era and I came up really just to be cool and really did it for the girls and stuff. As I got older, I started falling in love with it, the art of it, and I use to be in a group with my homeboy Pat Piff, and he would introduce me to different types of music. He introduced me to A Tribe Called Quest and a lot of the older stuff I picked up on. It wasn’t ‘til I was about 16 where I realized I really wanted to do it for real and it was serious. That was around the time I started going to the radio station in downtown Detroit. There’s one station called Hot 102.7. I would go down there every Friday and it would be a whole bunch of rappers and the ones who wanted to battle got to rap on air for free. I did that for a long time and that’s how I got a good relationship with the radio station and that’s really how I met Kanye.

CHAMP: Now eventually at that station something big would happen. If you can speak on what happened there?

Big Sean: That was how we got contact. He told me I had 16 bars, but it really turned into 10 minutes. Over time, he would send me music back and forth. We had lost contact for a while, but somebody from Def Jam hit me up unexpectedly that he had been looking for me and he just wanted to send me more music back and forth, and over the years I had graduated high school and was goin’ to Michigan State, and I was ready to go to school, and I had a scholarship, and I was ready to party, and ready to do all that. I knew G.O.O.D Music at the time was going through a couple things as far a distribution wise, so I didn’t think I was gonna get signed. He kinda gave me the word that he wanted to sign me, but then called me right after I graduated from high school and was like “Yo man, I wanna make this happen with you”. He flew me out and was working on his album Graduation, and he took me under his wing before he signed me, just to show me how an album is made. Taught me a lot of different things. One thing he thought me was not to write anything down. I don’t write none of my raps. I just think ‘em similar to Jay-z, Common, Biggie, and a whole bunch of rappers do. He just taught me so many things and I decided to put off school and do and focus on this. It’s not everyday Kanye West calls and says he wants to sign you.

CHAMP: You brought up an interesting point where you said he taught you not to write. I’m assuming he doesn’t write as well. What was the reason why you guys wanted to do just do it off the top?

Big Sean: I remember I told him that I write stuff on paper and he was like man I’m trying to make you my protégé and he told me that he didn’t write because it comes off more natural. You waste time having to write stuff down and you may lose an idea. Sometimes we would just go in the booth and say what first comes to our mind and it would be a lot of mumbling, but some great ideas would come out, and if you write it down you’ll forget all the shit that’s not memorable. If you look at it like that, that’s one of the reasons why. It’s just the way I guess he was a custom to it. Maybe that was they way he was taught and he was teaching me.

CHAMP: It’s been said you got a similar style to Kanye’s. How long have you been hearing that for and do you look at it as a pro or con?

Big Sean: I feel like being a protégé or being influenced by somebody, people are gonna start that, but definitely my later music, I’ve been really trying to stray away from that and really branding my own style, and coming up with my own stuff, my own lane. You don’t wanna be stuck under somebody’s shadow like that. I really think I’m coming into my own as an artist, that’s why I think it’s the perfect time to be coming out with my debut album and to be dropping music on a whole ‘nother lever. I feel like as an artist, I’ve developed into my own, and I can’t wait to show people that and put out this new music. I just wanted to let them hear this new music and hopefully it shocks the world.

CHAMP: You got a crazy joint that leaked out called “Made” featuring Drake. You were a bit upset that it came out prematurely aren’t you?

Big Sean: Yeah, it wasn’t finished and that’s one of the worst things ever man. It’s like the factor of surprise isn’t there anymore. People heard it and I was counting on that to be one of my biggest songs, and that’s not even a finished version. Our verses are completely different, it’s way more put together, and now it’s just kind of ruined. I’ma see if we can roll with it hopefully. It’s just the factor of surprise. People have heard that song and when they hear different versions they may be more accustom to the leaked version of the old one and it just really sucks. One way or another we gon’ drop that joint very soon. I got a lot of other surprises on my album I don’t wanna give away, but that was definitely just one of the big ones. Plus it’s like the new cats of hip hop Drake, Me, Young Money, G.O.O.D Music. It just sucks that it couldn’t work the way it’s suppose to work.

CHAMP: The first joint you dropped with the Finally Famous Mixtape. Now we’re waiting on that Finally Famous album to drop. When can we expect that out?

Big Sean: The album is definitely coming later this year. You can expect it around September. We putting the last final touches on it now. I gotta go out, finish things up, and it’s gon’ be a big year for G.O.O.D Music man. You can expect stuff from Kanye, you can expect stuff from me, I know Cudi’s coming with something new, everyone’s working. John Legend, Common, we just really trying to do it on a real big level. On some take over stuff. It’s gon’ be good man. As far as my album, I just can’t wait for people to hear it. I incorporate all situations I’ve been through, from being in a messed up relationship, to falling out of love, to being broke, to getting on, to living your dream and everything in between and all these different situations I go through. The stories I tell I incorporate on my album and plus there’s a lot of fun stuff too. I like to have fun I just turned 22 years old, so I like partying and doing what young people do. It’s all of that in one.

CHAMP: What’s the single we’re gonna launch the album with?

Big Sean: The first song we going with is called “What You Doin’”. We just shot a video for it in Miami. It’s really fun and it’s something for the club. It really has a good sense of lyricism on it. It’s for the club and for some people to have fun to and it kinda relates to a lot of peoples lives and their situations too if you listen to the song. We ‘bout to drop the video in a little bit.

CHAMP: You of course appeared on the XXL Freshman and I know the accomplishments aren’t gonna stop there. What else can expect from Big Sean?

Big Sean: Really, I’m taking it as I go man. Whatever opportunities come, I’m taking it. You can expect a lot from me. You can expect a lot of good music, a lot of great videos, and a lot of stuff man. Shout out to XXL Magazine too that’s like a dream come true. As a rapper, you wanna get a record deal, you wanna sell millions of records and you wanna be on the cover of  big ass magazines. That’s definitely a big magazine. I don’t wanna give too much away, like I said we got a lot of surprises man. Just stay tuned. Y’all can hit me up on twitter too man. My twitter is @big_sean. I keep everybody updated on there daily.