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Catalog Catch Up: Big Sean – “Memories”

Posted on March 19th, 2012
by
Karen


“One time for all my niggas that dreamed it and real life’d it…”

With his success over the past year and change, for some, it may be hard to imagine when Big Sean wasn’t on the radio, magazine covers and countdowns. There was even a time I pondered if he’d ever graduate into anything past the mixtape scene mainly because it felt as if Kanye was so heavily invested into CuDi that nothing else mattered. Even Sean voiced these concerns if you go back and listen to his “Say You Will” Freestyle from 2009.

Anyway, and to make a longer post much, much shorter, Finally Famous 3 represented the turning point in Big Sean’s career. The well thought out, strategically ordered mixtape with Don Cannon laid out a host of bangers with features from everyone to Bun B to Tyga to Dom Kennedy. Now, it was seeming at least, everyone was accepting his bouncy and heavily mimicked flow (let him tell it); from there the sky opened up and he never looked back. For a tape that featured staples like “Crazy,” “What U Doing?,” “Love Song” and “My Closet,” arguably the record that has defined his career thus far was “Memories.”

The introspective, yet light number saw the Detroit native reflecting on his hustle as well as personal relationships gone sour (a friend addicted to pills who may or may not have ever truly recovered). There was no ill conceived effort to have the track permeate radio stations – although it would have provided a welcomed, honest change of pace – but rather it was a record Sean needed to do and needed to close the project out with. Being famous is great, and a goal pretty much everyone has dreamed of at least once in our respective lives. But never forgetting the struggles it took to get you there may be more important than anything because, at the end of the day, all we really have are memories.

0 responses to “Catalog Catch Up: Big Sean – “Memories””

  1. Jasmine Ay says:

    Thanks Karen for this! I love Big Sean and his story!