{"id":2446778,"date":"2019-07-25T13:09:52","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T19:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=862977"},"modified":"2019-07-25T13:09:52","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T19:09:52","slug":"the-inexplicable-disrespect-for-big-sean-is-at-an-all-time-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/the-inexplicable-disrespect-for-big-sean-is-at-an-all-time-high\/","title":{"rendered":"The Inexplicable Disrespect for Big Sean Is at an All-Time High"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s difficult to fathom how much misery one has to have in their heart to hate Big Sean<\/a>. Hating on rappers is often a beautiful and cathartic exercise, but part of the fair exchange should be rooted in said rapper being oblivious or obnoxious enough to warrant vitriol. It\u2019s what differentiates a Lil Uzi Vert from a Nav, a Polo G from Chance. Too much earnestness here, a lack of self-awareness there, a pinch of desperation \u2014 they all contribute to the animosity ecosystem. That\u2019s what makes the bi-annual Big Sean hostility parade such an odd ritual.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t like Big Sean, that\u2019s fine! But the man seems impossible to loathe. His brand of celebrity is so unobtrusive that the worst Ariana Grande could muster was that he wasn\u2019t a match, on kiss-off anthem and the biggest single of the year (plus she subsequently wrote<\/a> \u201cso cute, so sweet (could still get it)\u201d in the accompanying music video). As a rapper, he\u2019s supplied the industry with a steady supply of hits that are silly-to-charming at best (\u201cI Don\u2019t Fuck With You\u201d), and obvious lay-ups at worst (\u201cA$$\u201d). His propensity to lean on past-their-sell-by-date punchlines is an obvious flaw, but it\u2019s part of that is the era of rap (e.g., early-to-mid 2000s mixtape culture) that reared him into existence; we\u2019re not sitting here combing through 2 Chainz, or even Blueface, lyrical blunders. It\u2019s Sean\u2019s fealty to a bygone era of rap that transformed him into the most commercially viable artist on Kanye West\u2019s G.O.O.D. Music imprint, and one of the few success stories of his generation (though his success has been much more modest than, say, Drake\u2019s). After a smattering of missteps \u2014 his last solo album (I Decided<\/em><\/a>), the lackluster Metro Boomin-produced project (All or Nothing<\/em>), and uneven collab with Jhene Aiko (TWENTY88<\/em>) \u2014 Big Sean could use a reworking, sure, but he\u2019s done nothing to earn Rap Twitter\u2019s constant vitriol.<\/p>\n

\u201cOvertime\u201d is a song targeted at rap\u2019s classical niche, a demographic who champion songs devoid of hooks but made with expensive beats, for the men and women who rap a lot of words really fast over them. It\u2019s a method that holds steady; look no further than the way people lose their minds at a DaBaby or Megan Thee Stallion freestyle, or why Logic fans think he\u2019s the chosen one. For three-plus minutes, Sean leans into a sparse, Hit-Boy, Key Wane, and The Tucker Brothers beat, that switches halfway through into an epic surge. The song is a bingo board of formalism: Eminem homage, \u201cHovi Baby\u201d sample, sports metaphor. For a certain consumer low on jadedness and high on life, the Kawhi laugh punchline and Hot Girl Summer reference should hit the ear beautifully.<\/p>\n

But for all the accouterments, \u201cOvertime\u201d ultimately succeeds because Sean\u2019s narrative arc finally feels like a path worth treading. \u201cI didn\u2019t take a break, my nigga, I broke,\u201d he raps during the first half of the song. \u201cBroke my heart, broke my soul, don\u2019t cry for me though.\u201d During an interview with Beats 1\u2019s Zane Lowe<\/a>, Sean opened up about his recent mental health struggles. \u201cIt was a point where I just had to put a little more effort into myself,\u201d Sean said. \u201cHad to nurture myself a little bit and nobody around me as a black man, nobody around me ever did that or have the luxury or time to work on themselves and get themselves right and correct some of the things that aren\u2019t working for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

For years, Sean was the guy who turned a freestyle for Kanye West into a career. That story quickly ran out of fumes, and the predictable travails of celebrity took its place. It got uninteresting fast, but \u201cOvertime\u201d points to something different \u2014 or at least something entertaining enough to warrant the hate.<\/p>\n