Detroit’s Early Mac teams up with Bizzy Crook and Trae Tha Truth for a lyrical homage to money’s allure with “Big Bank.” The expression “big bank takes little bank” (also the record’s chorus) parallels symbolism between the song’s overt concept and what’s created when two up and coming spitters link with a Houston legend. The continuously rapid drum kicks offer simplistic production for Mac and friends, positioning the spotlight on the rhymes themselves. Earlly Mac came out of the gate with fire and his buzz only seems to be heating up.

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There’s a moment, a little less than 10 seconds in on “10 2 10,” where Big Sean says, “I’m gonna be paid forever.” It’s a small, minor moment in an album full of small, minor moments, but it could also serve as Big Sean‘s mission statement. Hall of Fame is Big Sean‘s second major label-release, under Kanye West‘s G.O.O.D Music imprint, and it’s an album that was designed to sell records.

Big Sean’s career path is one of decent mythology: he spit bars for Kanye at a local radio station, exchanges numbers, drops a few mixtapes, and eventually earns himself a deal with G.O.O.D. Then, he was shelved for a while, and he waited patiently for his moment by dropping a few more mixtapes. Finally, his time came, and with a few solid singles to his name, he dropped his debut album, the aptly named Finally Famous, 4 years after initially signing to West‘s label. Where Finally Famous was a celebration of making it to this point, Hall of Fame is designed to keep him at the top, and all over your radio dial.

Sean‘s one of the few artists out who have cornered the market on pop-rap; he’s created radio friendly hip-hop that can still craftily fall into the genre’s ever growing title of “street music.” Sometimes, he finds the right blend of melodic flows and catchy hooks. The album has a handful of tracks that show that formula’s potential for making good music. ‘Beware’ featuring Jhene Aiko, and a not-so-stellar Lil’ Wayne, is a great example, as Sean bounces from singing alongside Aiko on the hook, to verses with an uneven flow; “Toyota Music” has Sean zonked out on some good tree, slowing it down for a minute to a very solid effect; “10 2 10′”and “Mula (Remix)” both capitalize on the trap sounds that are all over Urban Radio, and Young Chop provides the daring instrumentals on both tracks.

Sean does struggle to find his footing on more than one occasion. For every solid point on the album, there’s almost always a matching negative. “MILF” features mailed in verses from Nicki Minaj and Juicy J. “First Chain” is reminiscent of Kanye‘s “‘We Major,” but in the sense that Nas was pretty much there for nothing (not that Cudi doesn’t show out, because he definitely brought his A-Game on this one). “Nothing is Stopping You” features a fairly decent beat from Key Wayne, but the song as a whole is a rather forgettable tale of Sean paying it forward for an up-and-coming rapper like himself. And Jay-Z may want a Picasso in his casa, but Sean getting a “Mona Lisa,” is one of the album’s lowest point.s

“‘Fire” may be the most polarizing track on the album. DJ Camper‘s produced arguably the best track on the album, but Sean‘s verses are still so polarizing. The moment the beat fades out and Sean spits “when it’s all finished, at the ending, after all the bottles spilling, throttle gripping, model switching, ching chilling in my villa, fucking like I’m trying to populate a village, I’m replenished, I didn’t do it for the money, just for the feeling, I made it through the…” and then the beat hits back harder than ever; that’s a moment that Sean’s rarely hit in his career. But, then he drops lines like “back to the hood where they’re speaking Trapanese, if I fall down, bet I only trampoline” and it’s hard to take him seriously. That’s ultimately the problem with Big Sean, and Hall of Fame, he tries so hard – almost TOO hard – to be taken seriously as something.

But what is he trying to be? A real rapper? Kendrick and Jay Electronica showed that he can’t really hang in that realm. An uplifting spirit, speaking for the streets of Detroit? Danny Brown has other thoughts on what streets Sean’s from. A hybrid of Drake and J. Cole? He’s doing a sub-par job of that. (See: “All Figured Out”) . Maybe Big Sean doesn’t even know what he wants to be, but there’s one thing that he is for certain: an average rapper, that’s going to sell a lot of records. With a Kanye West co-sign, and enough weight to his name with radio hits already there, there’s no denying that Big Sean‘s music is going to sell records and hit the airwaves. It’s the world we live in, and for that, we’ve gotten Hall of Fame. It’s an average rap-record that’s going to produce 3-4 singles (our bet is on album standout “Ashley” to be the biggest hit from the album, even though Miguel does much of the song’s heavy lifting), but Sean could’ve given us so much more.

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Big Sean has had a pretty good week. Sean has officially started promoting Hall Of Fame, and he’s doing it in a major way. Check him and Cole World out performing “24k Gold” in Boston last night. Swerve. Shouts to Sean’s IG for the flick.

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In the last two years, Big Sean has become a well known rapper. His G.O.O.D Music/Def Jam debut album, Finally Famous, which included the popular gold singles, “My Last” and “Marvin & Chardonnay” was commercially well received. He also put out the banging double platinum single, “Dance A$$”, which kept many house parties and strip clubs on lock during the second half of 2011. The Detroit native continued to keep the streets fed during 2012 with his current mix-tape titled Detroit, which is in steady rotation on most music fans iPods.  Finally, he’s no stranger to guest appearances on some of 2012’s hottest tracks with some of today’s biggest recording artists like Kanye West, Kelly Rowland, Chris Brown, Kevin Mc Call, Lil Wayne, Meek Mill and Justin Bieber.

Now, Big Sean returns with his last single titled, “Guap”, which is the first single off his sophomore album titled, Hall of Fame: Memoirs of a Detroit Player. And the one thing that this Caribbean flavored joint will have is pimps, players, hustlers, gamblers and drug dealers nodding their heads in agreement.

Song Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wJ6y5nIW26E

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Finally Famous fans have been awaiting a new Big Sean mixtape for a while now. Well, the wait is almost over. September 5th, Sean will release Detroit. Now at a much bigger, and more dynamic stage of his career, it’s good to see the artist still repping for his hometown.

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Finally the video we’ve all been waiting for. Hype Williams directs as Big Sean and Kanye West color coordinate their outfits and pick up some ladies. You can read our story on the behind the scenes adventures during this video shoot here.

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TIME FOR A CHANGE

I used to work for a telecommunications company. I got laid off in Novemeber of 2009 [and] I probably wouldn’t have picked up a camera and said I’m really gonna do this if that didn’t happen. I knew I loved photos, but I didn’t take it as remotely as seriously as I take it now. I had a bunch of money saved up. I took 10 grand and I said alright, let’s do this thing. I bought a couple of Macs and everything that I needed and I got started.

I understood lighting and how it works. I just knew that from before, no traditional training.  I’m mostly self-taught. A lot of trial and error, but I understood the technical aspect of how it worked. I’m a complete nerd. I used to work [in manholes] with fiber optics so just understanding gadgetry and the way things work.

Joe Budden at SOB’s— that was my very 1^st show. I’m this gigantic 6’3” guy with a gigantic camera and I shot. I shot and I loved the way it felt.

A PERSONAL PROJECT BECOMES PROFESSIONAL

The Big Sean project as a whole has been something that I consider very personal to me. Def Jam didn’t ask me to do it initially. I had kind of just taken it over.

Big Sean’s been signed with Kanye for three years – three years, three mixtapes. Everybody stepped on him, but it just took progression and work. Leading up to his album everything that success meant to him in the making of Big Sean and Finally Famous, it’s kind of synonymous with what I do means to me.

I follow his body of work and I’m a huge fan, but just listening to his music from all three [volumes] of Finally Famous and just hearing him on features and things like that I knew he was gonna be special. Coming from my perspective listening to Big Sean and just doing what I do with the camera, I said I have to be there for this.

After taking a couple of pictures [a friend of mine at the Def Jam office saw them and] she said I saw your pictures. Do you think I could have them? The next thing you know, the batch of pictures that I sent them make their way through the entire office up to Steve [Bartles]. So I’m like great, that’s nice but that doesn’t mean they’re gonna call me back or anything. I was still gonna continue whatever it was, just working on [Big Sean] and his body of work because in the digital age, everybody’s got a camera.

I wanted [the Big Sean project] to look good because I wanted him to look good, so all the appearances that I could make it to [I was at]. Everything in New York I pretty much had covered. All of the stuff went up on uknowbigsean.com and defjam.com from his appearance on 106 & Park to every last show in New York. I was fortunate enough to be there. One thing that I’m blessed with is that the people at Def Jam have appreciated me 100 percent.

BEHIND THE SCENES OF “MARVIN GAYE AND CHARDONNAY”

I get down there and there was this electricity.

Hype Williams is there, so I walk in and I’m trying to maintain my cool.  Kanye’s there and I go out in the hallway to just prepare and put my camera together because I’m never there for just one purpose. I’m taking pictures of everything. It’s always about building the story, that’s very important to me.

Then I hear these beats and the speakers are loud and the doors are shut in the studio, so I’m like ok I hear Jay-Z. I said wait a minute, they’re playing Watch the Throne. Kanye walks in and they’re having a private listening session of Watch the Throne on the video set. This shit was awesome.

As he starts shooting the video they’re a little apprehensive about the cameras being out even though they knew who I was he was like I don’t want any of these photos getting out, and I respect that. If they say they don’t want something, don’t do it because you’re gonna end up compromising your integrity and seeming more like paparazzi.

[Kanye] loosens up and I start to shoot some of the behind-the-scenes photos and the making of the record and just seeing everything that Sean had to go through was super awesome because there goes this young kid from Detroit who had a dream of doing it and made it and he even said it on the set, I used to watch all these Hype Williams videos when I was little and now Hype Williams is directing my shit. It was cool to be there for that moment and capture every bit of it and even be allowed to do so. I mean the journey is definitely something special and I’m just here to capture it on camera.

THE “NEW SCHOOL” PHOTOGRAPHER

I look at what I do as art. The “new school of photographers and videographers,” we’re under appreciated and no one would say that out loud but I’m the loud mouth and I’ll say it. I never want to do it for the wrong reasons. I never want to do it because I want a million dollars. I really honestly do it for the culture.

When I go to an event I’m there because I want to be there. I do what the hell I want. The artists interest me. I shoot everybody that I listen to. If I’m not really interested in the guy I’m not gonna go.

My ability to shoot has always been there, but you have to do so much to get people to just start looking at it. It’s a hustle. You can’t really walk into a lot places to just say hey. People wont even give you the time of day. You have to put your own work in the process and then they start to notice oh this kid is dope. You really gotta stand behind everything that you love. You can’t really listen to anybody who ever tells you no. You take those chances you take those opportunities and you make it happen. I totally believe in that and that’s why I am where I am now my definitive shot – most people go to my website and they’re like oh damn that’s Kanye West and that’s really gonna draw in a lot. People are noticing and times where I think nobody’s paying attention they are. I get calls and I hear from people in the industry like, yeah somebody was talking to me about you. You’re making a lot of noise.

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