Big Sean sat down with Joe Budden for a 2-hour interview on the new season of Joe Budden’s Pull Up show on YouTube. Big Sean has been away for some time but came back to drop an abundance of gems.
The “Sacrifices” rapper recently announced that he’ll be performing at Coachella this year and is prepping his 5th album around that date.
Big Sean was overworked and not enjoying life
“I just didn’t feel like myself. When you do something whether its music whether you’re a publicist… whatever the case is… I realized that I didn’t have the same passion that I did when I was 11. I was thinking it was the passion for music but when I would go in there and focus on the music I would realize that I still had the passion for that I just didn’t have the passion for life anymore because I wasn’t taking the time out to enjoy myself. I wasn’t taking the time out to live.”
Big Sean has always bragged about his work ethic as a rapper. To quote “Final Hour” from Finally Famous 3, Sean raps, “Sometimes I feel I’m working just to work harder, and then work harder than who works the hardest. Man the life of a workaholic. You’re either on your work or just working on it.” Well, it seems that mentality has become taxing on the 31-year-old.
“What really matters is the things that you can’t necessarily buy.”
Big Sean tells Joe about when he turned 30 years old and bought a new house that as a child was everything he wanted. Yet, around the time he moved in it was the “worst he’s ever felt,” because material possessions didn’t do for him what he thought they would.
The Dark Sky Paradise rapper also recalls his first Jesus piece that Kanye West bought him and although he cherished the jewelry, it didn’t matter as much as he thought it would.
Big Sean bought a gun.
Sean claims the gun was not necessary to cause harm to himself or anyone else, but simply for protection because “people are crazy.” He does note however that when he was feeling down it felt like the worst time to have a gun in the house.
“If it wasn’t for Tidal paying for the video for Twenty88 we would’ve had to pay for it ourselves out of pocket.”
Big Sean talks about how he and Jhene Aiko linked up for their joint project Twenty88 and how the labels didn’t back the project despite the chemistry and already popular songs they had together. Tidal essentially provided the backing for the project so that Sean and Aiko wouldn’t pay for it themselves.
Artists have consistently praised the Jay-Z owned streaming service for its commitment to the culture. Prior to his passing, Nipsey Hussle posted on Instagram the number of money artists make per stream on the various platforms with Tidal being the highest paying streaming service.
Big Sean Recalls his last conversation with Nipsey Hussle and hearing the Kobe Bryant news.
“I remember the last conversation I had with Nipsey… it was the day before the Grammys… and I was like don’t even trip if you don’t get this Grammy you’re just getting started… you bout to be right back.” Nipsey Hussle didn’t live to see that Grammy after being gunned down a month later. “Sometimes you can plan for the future but you’ve got to just live in the moment,” Sean says.
“It felt like a nightmare,” the Detroit native says about hearing the news of Kobe’s passing. Big Sean tells Joe that he was just with Kobe Bryant on New Year’s Eve at Jay-Z and Beyonce’s house… “It just had the whole world at a standstill. It also taught me that… literally waking up that day felt like a blessing… we got our own little issues our own little situations… things that are so microscopic when it comes to the subject of a death.”
Later in the interview, Sean talks about arguments he had with his mother and periods of time that he hadn’t spoken to his brother where he’s grateful nothing happened to them during that time otherwise he would’ve been “crushed” on how he left things.
“[Dark Sky Paradise] was a moment in my career where I felt like I had a lot to prove.”
DSP was Big Sean’s third studio album released in 2015. The album featured some of Sean’s biggest songs to date like “Blessings” “IDFWU” and “Play No Games.”
Sean has always had bars, but his first two albums on G.O.O.D. Music didn’t connect like Dark Sky did although Sean did earn praise from his peers in the industry prior to the third album’s release. Big Sean claims that he had more to prove to himself more than the haters.
Big Sean details how he linked with Chris Brown to make his first single “My Last”
Sean’s early days with G.O.O.D. Music were difficult and he had to fight for everything he got from Kanye’s label. Super producer No I.D. had even told Sean that he’s going to need a hit record if he wanted his debut LP to be something.
Fortunately for Sean, during a New York City show, Chris Brown popped out and told a young Big Sean that he wanted to work. The two would later link up in Miami to do a few records together including Sean’s first single “My Last.”
There were 10 artists who recorded a verse for “Clique” from the Cruel Summer album.
While telling Joe how Kanye made an impact on his life, he notes that Kanye gave him his first record with Jay-Z in the form of “Clique.” The hit record originally had 10 different voices on it and by process of elimination Jay and Ye decided that Sean’s verse was the hottest and they kept his verse of everyone else’s.
“That’s the impact I want to make. I want to give somebody else those opportunities,” Sean says in the interview.
“One of the people that I felt it was important to connect with after Nipsey died was [Kendrick Lamar]”
“When this whole Big Sean Kendrick beef was going on, I wish it was something I spoke up about because it was nothing.” Big Sean mentions that he and Kendrick were close having kicked it at Sean’s house, did charity events together and Kendrick even invited Sean to his mom’s home in Compton.
“I should’ve just came out and said not this ain’t it.” Sean said about ending beef rumors when they started. Big Sean says that he spoke to Kendrick after Nipsey passed and everything was good between them.
The post A Breakdown of Big Sean’s ‘Pull Up’ Interview W/ Joe Budden appeared first on The Source.
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