I think as a culture we can agree that sequels are usually terrible. Sometimes things are meant to happen once. Besides Street Fighter 2, Terminator 2 and the second iPhone, things usually get worse when you try to recapture that initial magic. The key to making a good sequel is to understand the importance of the original while focusing on creating something new. It takes a lot of heart, and a lot of thought, but when you pull it off something magical happens.
Big Sean is confusingly one of my favorite rappers. I say confusingly because there’s been several times in his career I’ve questioned this. When Big Sean is focused he’s amazing, but when he goes through the motions he’s worse than birthday sex with someone you’re breaking up with. I was ready to write Big Sean off until he opened up and said he spent a year away from rapping and focusing on his mental health. He spoke of how important therapy and meditation was to his spirit and I really appreciated the vulnerability he showed. Rappers rarely talk about their mental state, and when they do they don’t admit to seeking outside help unless it’s court mandated. Seeing Sean speak honestly about himself told me it was time to give him another shot, and sure enough he released the sequel to his best tape, “Detroit 2”.
Let’s get into it.
I’m happy this album exists.
I will say it again, a focused Big Sean is a beautiful thing to watch. When he allows himself to express what he’s thinking instead of just deferring to a corny punchline, he has some real shit to say. It might not be as instantly gratifying as a punchline but overall it means way more. On Detroit 2 it not only feels like he understands the weight of his words, he’s grateful for the opportunity. Every feature feels like there was thought behind it, every story that’s told damn near steals the show. You can’t have a bad album if you got Dave Chappelle telling a story about how he bombed and Erykah Badu telling a poem/story/siren song about Detroit (I think). Usually Sean flexes his girl, his money, or his success, but these feature/stories show he’s most proud of the people around him.
Tonally this album is great, the fact that he has the vulnerability to admit his suicidal thoughts, insecurities and anti vax beliefs (more on that in a bit) is a credit to the production. Hit-Boy is quietly having an amazing 2020 and we need to acknowledge it. The beats provide so much life to Big Sean’s rhymes. This is a good album to play when you want to get rid of your anxiety without drinking/doing drugs. If you ever worried about ordering UberEats when you had food at the houses this is Album tells you “self care is important”.
The biggest con I can think of is that there’s a lot of “fuck western medicine” bars. I get it, I do, western medicine was pretty much built off experimentation on unexpected black “patients” and several medicines can cause severe side effects, but Sean’s also rich as fuck. I don’t like when wealthy people are anti vax, I know you niggas still have good health insurance and access to the best doctors. A rich person being anti-vax is like Allen Iverson being anti practice; all of us can’t afford to be this bold. Beyond the Anti Vax stuff, Sean repeats himself a lot. I appreciate it but there’s only so many ways you can say “I was sad and now I’m not”. That’s a little tedious. OH and one more hater ass complaint, hearing Jhené Aiko whisper/sing/rap about how bad she wants to fuck Sean hurt my feelings. I was pretty jealous.
Overall “Detroit 2” is proof positive that Big Sean knows how to rap and make an album. I appreciate that he opened up and let us into his journey for emotional growth. I love that he’s taking the stigma away from therapy and hopefully leads to some niggas getting some help. If you don’t like Big Sean, you probably won’t like him more after this album, but hey that Dave Chappelle story is dope as hell.
I give ”Detroit 2” 5 Dr Sebi Memes out of 6.