REVIEW: BIG SEAN - BETTER ME THAN YOU

3.5/5

Detroit Spinner.

Sean John may be done...but Sean Don isn't. 'Better Me Than You', comes a few weeks delayed after Big Sean's original release date, earlier this month, but you best believe it's ready now. Bathed in a godly gold light, this shirtless, 'Shawshank' like cover is real redemption for a man who means to embrace life now. Arms wide like Christ. He's staying out of that beef too, where Kendrick Lamar, a big me, like the Foo Fighters showed it was just he. But Sean, completes this fantastic four that took over the summer like 'Deadpool and Wolverine' as a hot Human Torch surprise. Flame on! The Klay Thompson of this rap ish, or one part of the Peter Parker GOAT pointing song with a fellow Detroit native. Now, powering like a piston for all you warriors and mavericks, following the sequel to his city, Big Sean gives us one of his biggest and best...all for the better.

You want singles. Sure, it's got those. 'Yes' like Marv Albert and the empowering 'Who You Are (Superstar)' like Lupe, doing for the Dolly Parton 9 'till 5 generation what 'I Can't by Nas did for the children. Yet, the 'Pressure' points that introduce this album, really hit hard and form a diamond rapper. 'Iconic' (for one in the making) and the refusal to be 'Typecast' really are two big, bold and brash blockbusters to set this all off. "Aye, back to the basics, back to the work/Like we back from vacation, we never not takin', we what? (What?)/Back to the basics, back to the basement/I love makin' progress you peons not makin'/Bro turn this back on me then push back up on me/I'm not really fazed by his fakeness/I'm cut from a different cloth, engineered from a different tier type greatness." DAMN! And that's just the pre-chorus, ready to make the crowd climax.

Features? Of course. This isn't J. Cole. And Sean Don isn't walking back nothing with his maf#####g clique, clique, clique. "Aye, aye, aye." With love still for 'Ye. The soulful sounds of Uncle Charlie Wilson help 'Break The Cycle' as his signature syllables help Sean "do it." Whilst 'It Is What It Is' with Gunna. But it's when we get to 'Apologize' ("Why would you ever deny or go plot against me?/Apologizin', you wanna say you sorry when you not/Want to be friends and do business, man, how could we?/Talk about me, 'cause you lost the privilege to talk it to me/On God, dug your own grave/Now do what you best at, n####, lie") with Eryn Allen Kane that things get more meaningful. This Big sampling 2Pac because he ain't mad at'cha.

Kane appears again in the 'Black Void' with Thundercat ("HOOOOO!"). And there's 'Something' with Syd too. Bryson Tiller and Kodak Black snap on 'This N That', and the big Hollywood guns are brought out on the 'Million Pieces' with Teyana Taylor, Larry June and the legendary DJ Premier that will break you like kintsugi. The gold forming on a chorus that is anything but melodramatic as Taylor awards us with academy lines like, "It's hard bein' a healer, when I'm scarred as hell/But the world can tell, all of the pride, let it die/All of the tears, let 'em dry/I look at myself, got a million mirrors to help." A 'Certified' NASAAN and the C.R.E.A.M. nirvana of 'Cash Cobain' help 'Get You Back' on this rap ish. Just like The Alchemist forming Voltron like chemical closer of 'Together Forever'. But it's the precursor and all the 'Happiness' that comes after that's really profound for this enlightened, epic rhymer. England's own Ellie Goulding loves us like she does again with the warm glow of 'My Life' on an LP that is as big as Sean's rap name. No gimmicks or Trice tricks.

Knock, knock! Who's there? Skits, b####! Funny like Chappelle, Big Sean brings the lost stand-up form of the hip-hop art back, like when Ludacris was a def jam. The kind when you'd tear open the album plastic to read the credits and get hyped for the next one in the booklet like Jay-Z said for his grey album. Do they still make those? Even albums. Sure. And Sean takes us back to the time album tracklists felt like movies. But even without all the spoken word performances and A-list features, Big could still give you a great album, all on it, and his own. 21 with savage like 'Precision' over tracks like 'On Up' for a man who has more street anthems for Motown than Tamala. But even with all this for the record and a new joie de vivre in his lust for life, Big is not afraid to set 'Boundaries', like as all should. "I gotta start settin' boundaries/'Cause everybody want a part of me, now I'm a piece of me/Been dealin' with the part of me that people hardly see/I gotta fall back and just get organized/Soak off in the sun rays and get fortified/I gotta start back wakin' up early mornin' time/I gotta feed my soul, 'cause it's cryin' out/I gotta execute, no more tryin' now." Now THAT'S the anthem in all of this boundless music. Better you AND me to pay heed. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Iconic', 'Who You Are (Superstar)', 'My Life (Feat. Ellie Goulding)'.