Top 10 Interesting Facts about Big Sean

Big Sean 2016 October.jpg Photo by Arturo Pardavila III – Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Big Sean

He was born on March 25, 1988, in Santa Monica, California. His parents were Myra and James Anderson. However, at the age of three months, his mother moved to Detroit, Michigan where he was raised by his mother and grandmother, Mildred Leonard. It is interesting to know that the grandmother served in World War II and was also among the first-ever black female captains in the United States Army. He worked hard in school and graduated from Cass Technical High School with a 3.7 GPA. 

He is known as Big Sean, a name he gained in his career in music which he began in 2007. However, he gained popularity in the year 2010 with his third mixtape Finally Famous Vol. 3: Big. In the year 2010, he signed a recording contract with GOOD Music and Def Jam Recordings and released his debut studio album Finally Famous in 2011 including the US top 10 single Dance Ass featuring Nicki Minaj and many others.

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1. Interesting Fact about His Career

Anderson at the 2021 Grammys (cropped).jpg Photo by Jonas4537 – Wikimedia Commons

During his years in high school, he showed his rhyming skills on a weekly basis as part of a rap battle contest held by Detroit hip-hop station WHTD. In 2005, he met Kanye West during a radio interview at 102.7 FM where he performed some freestyle. During this time, West was reluctant to hear him initially but later gave him 16 bars to rap for him. According to Big Sean, West enjoyed his freestyle. However, it was not until two years later that West signed Big Sean to GOOD Music. He has cited West, Eminem, The Notorious B.I.G., and J Dilla as influences who gave him the energy to start off his fame.

2. He Signed various Contracts

He signed various recording contracts with GOOD Music and Def Jam Recordings and released his debut studio album, Finally Famous in 2011, which included the US top 10 single Dance Ass featuring Nicki Minaj. Anderson followed it with his second album, Hall of Fame 2013, while his third album known as Dark Sky Paradise 2015, debuted atop the US Billboard 200. It also included the hit singles known as I Don’t Fuck with You featuring E-40 and Blessings featuring Drake and Kanye West. His fourth album called I Decided in 2017, contained Bounce Back, his highest-charting US single, while his fifth album Detroit 2 in 2020 was his third consecutive platinum album.

3. Kanye West’s Contribution to His Career

Big Sean 2009.jpg Photo by Big Sean – Wikimedia Commons

There is one person who contributed to building his fame and that is Kanye West. He followed him to a Conspiracy Worldwide Radio and discussed his interest in the music field. He actually was given an opportunity by West to rap for his and also left a demo tape for his freestyle. Sean discussed the role Kanye West and No I.D. have had in the development of his first studio album’s sonic direction as well as the challenges of being inside the studio with West. The album’s lead single, “My Last”, features vocals from Chris Brown and was produced by No I.D. According to Amazon.com, Big Sean’s Finally Famous was delayed by a week, with a tentative release date set for June 28. Big Sean revealed the cover art for his G.O.O.D. Music debut and explained that the one-week pushback was to be blamed on sample and feature clearance issues. The official tracklist was revealed on June 7.

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4. The Leak to the internet

An unauthorized leak of his collaboration with Drake, called “Made” made its way onto the internet on April 30, 2010. In an interview with TheHipHopUpdate.com on May 1, Big Sean expressed his disappointment over the leak, calling it an unfinished version both musically and lyrically. Big Sean’s official Facebook page confirmed that his debut album Finally Famous & Consequence’s Cons TV would be released on September 14, 2010. On August 31, Big Sean tweeted that the album was not coming out on that day, but that it would be coming out in 2011.

5. His famous Album, The Fall of Fame

He pushed back the release date of his second studio album Hall of Fame which was eventually released on August 27, 2013. The album has skits to give it a “classic feel”, and includes features from multiple artists, including Lil Wayne, Miguel, and Nas. The album’s production was primarily handled by No I.D., and Key Wane along with additional production from Hit-Boy, Da Internz, Mike Dean, Travis Scott, Xaphoon Jones, and Young Chop among others. The production involved fellow Detroit native Eminem. Actually, the team made a Detroit classic that was to be in the Hall of Fame.  Hall of Fame spawned five singles, Guap, Switch Up featuring Common, Beware featuring Jhené Aiko and Lil Wayne, Fire, and “Ashley” featuring Miguel.

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6. His New Songs

The band LOCASH, David Ortiz and Big Sean at Game 5 of the World Series. (30565642332).jpg Photo by Arturo Pardavila III – Wikimedia Commons

Around the time of the release of the Hall of Fame, he released four new songs titled, “I Don’t Fuck with You”, “Paradise”, “4th Quarter” and “Jit/Juke” which were produced by Mike Will, Made It, DJ Mustard, Kanye West, DJ Dahi, Nate Fox, Da Internz, L&F, and Key Wane. “I Don’t Fuck with You” was released to iTunes on September 19, 2014. 

7. He Gifted himself on His Birthday

Anderson at the 2021 Grammys.jpg Photo by Jonas4537 – Wikimedia Commons

On March 25, 2016, Big Sean released a track to celebrate his 28th birthday, Get My Shit Together. Two days later he announced a self-titled album with Jhené Aiko, Twenty88, scheduled to be released on April 1, 2016, exclusively on Tidal. The album was released on April 5, 2016, on Apple Music and Spotify. A week after the exclusive release of Twenty88 on Tidal, Big Sean and Aiko released a 15-minute short film called Out of Love, which is composed of several recordings from the album. He donated $ 10000 in the same month of his birthday to his home city to help with the Flint water crisis.

8. Various Famous Releases

It is interesting that he had many releases, however on July 24, 2019, he had a unique way of his releases whereby, for the first time, he released his first solo single since 2017 titled “Overtime”, produced by Hit-Boy, Key Wane, and the Tucker Brothers. On July 26, he released the song “Single Again”, which includes background vocals from Jhené Aiko and Ty Dolla Sign. On August 26, he released the single “Bezerk” featuring ASAP Ferg, performing it at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards. On his 32nd birthday which is on March 25, he announced that his new record would be titled Detroit 2. On August 25, he released the album’s lead single, “Deep Reverence”, featuring late rapper Nipsey Hussle.

9. Animated Movie

Big Sean Glasses.jpg Photo by Big Sean – Wikimedia Commons

In addition, he starred in the animated movie Trouble also known as Dog Gone Trouble, alongside Pamela Adlon and Lucy Hale. The movie was directed by Kevin Johnson. Detroit 2 was released on September 4, 2020, and features collaborations with Eminem, Jhené Aiko, and Lil Wayne. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, marking his third number-one album. Further, on September 17, 2020, Big Sean revealed in a Reddit AMA that another Twenty88 album is “in the works”. A track attributed to the project appeared on Detroit 2.  He has also announced that he plans on launching his own record label. On October 29, 2021, Big Sean announced on Twitter that after 14 years, he has stepped away from Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music label, saying “That’s a forever brotherhood, but business-wise, I had to start getting a bigger cut! I worked my way out that deal.” West also claimed during a November 2021 Drink Champs podcast that signing Sean was the ‘worst decision’ of his entire career.

10. His Recent Releases

Starting in 2020, Big Sean has appeared in the Showtime series Twenties in a recurring role as Tristan, an anti-social media character who learns the value of online connection. In October 2021, Big Sean, in collaboration with rapper and producer Hit-Boy released an EP entitled What You Expect. In February 2022, Big Sean and singer Queen Naija released a single entitled Hate Our Love. The song will appear on Naija’s upcoming album. In that same month, Big Sean confirmed the Twenty88 album and revealed he was collaborating with his girlfriend Jhené Aiko. In September 2022, Big Sean re-released Detroit to streaming platforms, in honor of its 10th anniversary.

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