niggas can't control me, ain't no handles on me - paradise
if you would've told me in 2012 that i'd be interested and eager to listen to a big sean album, i would've laughed in your face. thankfully, sean has grown quite a bit since the a$$ days. with kanye at the executive production helm, big sean delivers some of his most hard hitting and emotional material yet. as the album's title suggests, a looming sense of unrest pervades every song in some way.
most of these beats feel dark; even the most uplifting track one man can change the world feels heavier. it creates a serious tone that sean really takes advantage of on the more intense instrumentals but conversely hurts him on the slower ones. it's not even about what he has to say, it's explicitly how he sounds when he says it. further expanding that, he uses many different pacing styles successfully all over the album, so it may be that he simply hasn't picked the right one to use on the more introspective tracks.
in closing and more direct: the album is almost two sided. the front half is the more aggressive boastful big sean, and the latter is the more introspective medium sean. (if you have the special edition, it's more like thirds, with the second part being medium sean who returns to being big with the last two + all three bonus tracks) he's not all the way live just yet, but this is a solid step in the right direction.
top 3 + bottom one: all your fault, i don't fuck with you, paradise, i know
