Better Me Than You

About

“I'm at a point in my life where I just let things happen when they're supposed to happen,” Big Sean tells Apple Music about the decision to drop <i>Better Me Than You</i>. “So I just felt like it was time.” Originally thwarted by an online leak, the hitmaking rapper waited a few beats before moving forward with his first album in four year. Yet where 2020’s <i>Detroit 2</i> made for a love letter to his hometown, its follow-up surges beyond the sentimental to embody something altogether more meaningful regarding the man behind the mic. “I was inspired to have fun, first and foremost,” he say, “but I was also inspired by just the events that were going on in my life.” The terminally online will no doubt scour its contents for details and disses after his departure from G.O.O.D. Music, where he proved one of its most commercially successful and visible acts for over a decade. But even if one wanted to read deeply into the unrelenting and accusatory “Apologize,” his album is so much more than mere hip-hop gossip fodder. There’s a clear sense throughout the album that the accomplished punchline craftsman has grown since the days of <i>Finally Famous</i>, personally as well as artistically. In addition to the interlude monologue “Clarity,” he expresses the impact of first-time fatherhood on cuts like “On Up,” his maturity made increasingly evident. “It’s not that I'm trying to prove myself,” he say. “I'm really trying to <i>improve</i> myself.” .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

Start your shelf to read the full take →