22.
Hall Of Fame
Big Sean
G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam
Big Sean’s garnered a bad rap—no pun intended—as of late. He’s been accused of having too many d*ck-in-the-box jokes, a tendency to use too many filler bars and the two singles from his latest album—“Beware” and “Fire”—didn’t impact as effectively as they were intended to. But, say what you’d like, Big Sean’s album was very dope. The mark of an artist’s success should be decided by the musicality and effectiveness of their instrumentation and lyricism as much as their ability to achieve whatever ambitious standard they set for themselves on any given body of work. On Sean’s debut album, the themes were just short of lazy and the choruses extremely predictable, whereas on Hall of Fame he took a significant step in the right direction. From the onset, Sean is bent on showing off his storytelling side, evident on the album’s intro, “Ashley” and “World Ablaze”, and the transparency in his verses allows his music to reach a realm it has rarely travelled to. Granted, there’s still something to be said about the fact that his work on other artist’s songs continues to reign superior over his solo work, and Hall Of Fame didn’t turn out to be the fateful acceptance speech it was billed to be, but it certainly left room to imagine one day there will be one.
Top Tracks: “10 2 10,” “Sierra Leone,” “Nothing is Stopping You”
