Big Sean: Supa Dupa Ready

Back in 2009, I met Big Sean at a mixtape release party for “Finally Famous.” He had just inked a deal with Kanye West‘s G.O.O.D. Music imprint and was still a budding artist in the underground. But you could tell that Sean was different from the others. The pocket square in the T-Shirt, the snapback cap and his overall demeanor revealed a young emcee who had more confidence in himself than most rappers trying to occupy his space. As a fan of his work (and looking to bring fresh talent to BET), we exchanged information and kept in contact. I still have the rough cut of his “Getcha Some” video saved on my hard drive (“Yo bro, let me know what you think before I show this to the world,” the email said). Fast forward to 2011 and Sean is patiently waiting to drop his debut album despite the silent impact he has made as an emcee. His “Supa Dupa” rhyme scheme (one word punchlines) has been picked up and ran with by damn near everyone in the industry. But now it’s time for Sean to be the one in the spotlight. I caught up with the Detroit emcee to discuss his frustrations with having to wait and drop the album, how he hooked up with Chris Brown and his thoughts on Drake being the first to openly credit him as the one to come up with the “Supa Dupa” rhyme scheme.

TWV: The album is getting ready to drop. At first you spoke on being frustrated having to wait to put out your debut album. But talk about your feelings now as the release date approaches.

Big Sean: It’s like having sex for an hour and busting a nut cuz. It’s the shit. Everything I dreamed about and everything that I’ve always been striving for. I think every rapper has that dream to be on the cover of magazines and go platinum. I’m just excited that it’s all coming to fruition. I’ve been through a lot of shit lately; from not being a priority on my own label to having to make my own movement to having been signed and having to work like I wasn’t signed. It was hard work, but it’s all about to pay off. I’m getting everything I asked for. It’s a lot of work but I’m super happy about it.

TWV: What about the pressure? People are expecting a lot of big things to come from this album. Do you feel like there’s a lot of pressure for you to deliver?

Big Sean: Nah man. Hell nah. I feel the pressure a little bit but it’s good pressure. It’s like the pressure you get before you’re about to do something great. It’s the pressure to make sure you do great. That’s what the pressure is. I’m just going to do me though. I’ve always been a fan of making music that people can party, live, smoke, cry and have sex to. I make music for whatever young people go through. You’re going to hear a lot of party records and you’re going to hear records that are way deep emotional. You’re going to hear a story about a guy who fell in and out of love. Then you’re going to hear the story of somebody who just realized what they wanted to do in this world and just started doing it. The dream just started coming true. I think that’s something that everybody can feel.

TWV: There’s two ways to go about a debut album. You can either bring in the big guns for collaborations or you can choose to stand on your own two and see how you fare. What’s your plan?

Big Sean: It’s kind of both ways. I could flex and get almost everybody. But I just got people who really made sense like Pharrell, Kanye… but people who really compliment me. I’ve got Mike Posner and The Dream. But mostly you’re going to get me and my story.

TWV: Are you still going to continue releasing mixtapes after this or is it all about focusing on the album?

Big Sean: Fuck yeah I’m going to do mixtapes. That’s how I came up. Whenever people tell me not to do mixtapes, I look at them like “Yeah…fuck what you’re talking about.” That shit always works, especially when it’s good music… no pun intended. That’s where I came from. I came from the streets. I came from getting your buzz virally. There’s no way I can ever tune that out. That’s where I want to make the distinction though. The album is going to be different than my mixtapes because the mixtapes are formatted to not really give a fuck. You can do ten different songs with ten different sounds. For instance, on my last mixtape “Too Fake” sounded completely different from “Final Hour.” And those songs sounded completely different from “High Rise.” But on the album, the only difference is that there’s more of one sound. I wanted to give it one texture. But other that’s it. People are still going to get mixtapes from me.

TWV: What have learned being around the G.O.O.D. Music family? You’ve got people around you like Kanye and you’re one of the younger cats in the game. What are they teaching you when it comes to working in the studio and work ethic?

Big Sean: I’m learning so many life lessons from people like No I.D. and Kanye by just being around and observing. One of the lessons I learned was that you have to be comfortable with yourself more than anything. I also learned that you always have to find ways to stand out, no reason to make unnecessary enemies. A whole lot of life lessons that go on and on. But it’s been a crazy process for me. Blood, sweat and tears would be an understatement.

TWV: Why the song with Chris Brown? That threw some people off. How did that happen?

Big Sean: Chris Brown is a real fucking G man. He came to one of my shows at NYU that I was doing. He just popped up. I was like “What the hell are you doing here cuz?” He was like “I’m Chris Brown, I fucks with your shit. Let’s work.” I’m thinking that this nigga is bullshittin’. But we finally linked up and ended up working in Miami on a couple of songs and there was some great chemistry. Then we did some more songs and then I did a song for his album. Then I let him hear “My Last.” “My Last” was originally just all me singing and doing all of that. Then he heard it and hopped on it. Of course he sounded better than me singing. We decided to put that out first. I really like “My Last” because it really doesn’t follow any trends on radio. It’s not really trying to be anything else. It’s really just a “go out and party” record that still has that underlying tone that this is what we worked for. Even when I say “I grind hard and got a lot to show for it/Always had drive like I had to chauffer it/My team is so true, we should get a camera crew to follow us around and make a show for us” that’s just something that people can really relate to. It can relate to people in the sense like “Man, niggas really do work hard.” I’m proud of that record.

TWV: T-shirt, pocket square, where did that style come from?

Big Sean: Me! Where did the Tisa style come from? Me. Where did the snapback shit come from? Me…and a couple of other people probably. Where did the Supa Dupa style come from? Me! That’s just that Detroit player shit. We’ve always gotta stay on top of the trends.

TWV: But how does it feel when you start these trends but then somebody has to go back and credit you for it after it has been out for a while by saying “Big Sean did that first.”

Big Sean: That’s dope. When Drake gave me credit for the Supa Dupa rhyme scheme and the one word punchline, I thought he was a real nigga for that. He didn’t have to do that. He straight said that he got that from Big Sean. A lot of other people wouldn’t do that.

TWV: Were you shocked that he said that?

Big Sean: I was shocked he did that. That was crazy.

TWV: We’re solid on the date for the album then right?

Big Sean: May 3^rd (Editor’s Note: It has now changed to June 21st via Def Jam). But you know it may be a little bit sooner or later but it’s coming for sure. I’m a priority on Def Jam.

TWV: Are you worried about it leaking? That’s everybody’s fear these days…

I’m not worried about that. If it leaks, it leaks.