C-Sides: Big Sean
“Getcha Some” (2007)
Kanye West is presently attempting to do in fashion what he attempted to do in music eight years ago. If using one of his G.O.O.D. Music artists (currently in the midst of a marketing push for a new album) as an example of Kanye’s process as company’s boss can provide a blueprint, we’re in for a bumpy ride ahead.
Ask your favorite rap critic about Big Sean as an artist in 2015. What you’ll hear is that he’s surprisingly excellent. His forthcoming album Deep Sky Paradise could easily be described as a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow after eight years of being a Kanye West-cosigned (yet oft-lampooned) signee to Def Jam-distributed G.O.O.D. Music. However, if you go back to 2007, Big Sean released his best single ever, and it went absolutely nowhere fast. Now an entirely different artist, he’ll never be as great as he was in 2007, and his success will be defined by him reaching a new (and different) standard.
Once signed to G.O.O.D. Music, Sean released Finally Famous, a mixtape that featured “Getcha Some.” The single mentions thirteen luxury brands in four minutes with the emcee speaking in a wildly aggressive manner about the violence he’ll cause defending the sex he’ll have while wearing said brands’ gear. Rugged, boom-bap driven and melodic in production, for all intents and purposes it’s one of the greatest Hypebeast anthems ever. It (and others like it) welcomed a new era in which global luxury brands and couture houses actively began courting the leading emcees at the forefront of fashion awareness as a sign of hip-hop cool.
“Getcha Some” was repackaged two years later and included on DJ Mick Boogie-cosigned mixtape UKNOWBIGSEAN, with a video directed by rap legend Hype Williams (and Newspeak providing eye-catching visual animation) as a part of the package. It’s a standout piece, and how “Getcha Some” didn’t chart with that much money being put behind the single (in video alone) is astounding. How this single wasn’t marketed and re-marketed in ways that could create sustainable income for the label and the artist is incredible? All of the necessary pieces of the puzzle were there. Add in feature articles in The Source, plus features from brands Adidas and Billionaire Boys Club, and the fact that Big Sean didn’t explode as a superstar (from push alone) makes no sense whatsoever.
Big Sean’s entire career could be a great lesson in understanding how the rap industry became ubiquitous, then bloated and eventually became benign in impact. Sean has had to exist as a posse-rap master for most of his career. His first two solo albums have sold just over a half-million copies, his “best known” performances being on G.O.O.D. Music’s 2012 Cruel Summer singles “Mercy” (with Kanye, Pusha T and 2 Chainz) and “Clique” (with Kanye and Jay-Z).
G.O.O.D. Music procured Mick Boogie’s co-sign, Hype Williams, Newspeak, a cover art artist and a model of PR and distribution that allowed the mixtape to be widely disseminated. Though all of that is impressive, the label only did half of the job. The other half was getting a deserving artist a hit from a deserving single, which after all of the sound and fury behind the artist, ultimately resulted in nothing at all.
It’s 2015, and if you check out his latest single “I Don’t Fuck With You” (featuring E-40), it’s actually the first hit single of Sean’s career that he’s more than three-quarters responsible for. But what about that one time he slayed a track by himself eight years prior? Never forget.
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