But for some of his big time features, Big Sean has been pretty quiet this year. In an interview with Complex, the Detroit MC discusses the much anticipated Cruel Summer album, his crazy ‘Mercy‘ verse that was originally a freestyle, and his popular new ad-lib ‘Swerve’. He also spoke on his sophomore album and recalled reactions when he played it for J. Cole, Common & others. Hit the jump for some quotes.
Read the FULL Interview here.
Which rapper from G.O.O.D. is killing the raps onĀ Cruel SummerĀ the most?
Iām giving them bars for sure. PushaĀ is like that beast that you let off the leash and he just tear everything up. CyHi. Common. Of course āYe always bring that fresh, new stuff to the game. The whole fam. True albums should be the soundtrack to your life and fit different moods.
What can people expect from your upcoming sophomore album?
Well, we just got the first single. Iām not going to tell you whoās all on it. Dope ass artists on it, though, for sure. Itās great. Itās something that connects. When I was playing it for Common, he was losing his mind. J. Cole was blown away. It really is elevating, taking it to a different level. I donāt even want to hype it up or talk too much like, āYeah, my album is the shit!ā I just canāt wait for everyone to hear what Iāve been doing, what Iāve been cooking up. Weāre figuring it all out. I donāt know the title of the album. I know itās coming out this year.
Is it true that your “Mercy” verse started out as a random freestyle for Kanye?
Yeah, I was really freestyling with Kanye backstage at theĀ Watch the ThroneĀ tour and he was like, āMan, you got to say this on the record.ā I was like, āMan, I aināt about to say that. I just put out āA$$.ā I donāt need to be talking about no āass-quake, ass-tate.āā But I just laid it to see how it sounded and then for a while, there were no other verses on āMercy.ā
It was just my verse and we wereĀ vibing to it, so it naturally fit on there. I donāt really write any of my raps down. The same, Kanye donāt write any of his raps down. Common. Itās easy that way. For me, personally, I figure I will lose some of the inspiration in the time of me writing it down or Iāll say it a certain way because I wrote it a certain way. When I go in there and do it, itās easier for me.
Where did you āSwerveā ad-lib come from? Thatās a fan favorite now.
I just feel like thatās what Iām doing. Iām swerving around. Especially in the D-Town with whips everywhere in the city. Thatās something my crew was saying a long time ago. I guess itās something I brought to the forefront to where everybody can hear it. Thatās what itās all about, making new stuff up, making this elevated.
A lot of people criticize me because I be making up my own words sometimes in raps to rhyme, but I donāt understand how you can criticize someone trying to bring originality to the game. I think thatās really bitch-made to hate on somebody who rose up out their city and had a dream and made it happen and made their parents proud and supporting their family off of it too. You can hate, but Iām going to keep making this paper, though.
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