He knows you’re wondering why his debut album took so long. It’s been four years since he dropped his first mixtape, Finally Famous. Four years that have seen a rhyme style he pioneered become so widespread and prevalent you stopped even noticing when rappers would do it. In that time, he’s had a video directed by Hype Williams, released two more well-received mixtapes—UKNOWBIGSEAN, with Mick Boogie, in 2009 and Finally Famous Vol. 3, with Don Cannon, in 2010—and appeared on last year’s XXL Freshmen cover. But none of that’s enough. And he knows rap fans are impatient.

It’s not like Sean “Big Sean” Anderson has enjoyed all the waiting. He didn’t really understand the delay himself.

“You know, it was weird,” he says. “I didn’t understand why that was happening. You know, all I would hear is, like, ‘Man, you gotta get it popping, man. You gotta get it bubbling.’ I would hear that from, like, Gabe [Tesoriero, a publicist] up at Def Jam. I’m like, ‘What the hell you mean? Why don’t you put my song on the radio, and I’ll be poppin’.’”

But he had to wait. It was okay. He’d waited before.

By now, people know his first-big-break story. In 2006, he was working a telemarketing job when he approached Kanye West outside of Detroit’s Hot 102.7 station and freestyled for him. Kanye saw potential and called him to say that he wanted to sign him to his label, G.O.O.D. Music. Fresh out of Cass Technical High School, a magnet school, 17-year-old Sean had to make a grown-up life decision, like a McDonald’s All-American point guard pre–NBA eligibility policy: go pro or attend Michigan State University on an academic scholarship.

Many members of Sean’s extended family are in academia. His parents split up when he was just a baby, and he was raised mostly by his mother, who matriculated at the University of Michigan, before getting a master’s at NYU. Lucky for Sean, she had a passion for the creative arts; she pursued acting after school. She took classes with Denzel Washington and would go on to appear in television commercials for national brands like Gerber. But when she became pregnant with Sean’s older brother, Brett, she put her career on hold. After Sean was born, she put it on stop, opting for the steadier employment of being a school teacher.

So she well understood what it meant for her son to get an opportunity to follow his dream. “When it was my time to do what I wanted to, she was more than supportive,” he remembers. “She was in tears, like, ‘Baby, you gotta do this. Education will always be there if you want to go back.’”

With his mother’s blessings, he declined the scholarship, poured himself into rapping, and waited…and waited…and waited. “I was home for, like, a year and a half to two years. It was, like, no contact [from Kanye]. I didn’t know what was going on. I gave up everything, but I still wasn’t signed. All my friends were at school, telling me how fun it was. ‘I fucked this many bitches, man. Parties every day. I’m high as hell. Class is crazy...’ All this fun shit that young people are supposed to do. I’m at home with my mom. I was broke. I kind of had a buzz around the city, so it’s not like I can just go and get a job, honestly. It was one of the worst times of my life.” At the end of 2007, he signed to G.O.O.D. Music. The next year, he signed to Def Jam.

FOR MORE OF BIG SEAN, GO TO PAGE 2

loading...

Sean’s G.O.O.D. Music stablemates are impressed with how he’s handled himself throughout that time. “When I first met him, he was like, 'It’s taking me a while to put this out,'” says Pusha T. “But what I noticed and admired about him was that it never went further than that. He’d make a statement like that and follow it with, 'Man, I’m just about to get back on my grind... I’m about to go write some shit.'"

While Sean opted out of college, his music and style carry a distinct appeal for kids who didn’t. He frequently performs on campuses around the country, to great adoration.

“I live in a college town,” Pusha says of his Virginia Beach home’s proximity to schools like Old Dominion and Norfolk State. “I’ve been at shows with Sean and I see how they react to him. They, like, love him... In a nutshell, Big Sean is the coolest guy on campus who’s not on campus.”

With his album Finally Famous: The Album finally scheduled to hit stores in May, Big Sean is excited about taking part in what he sees as rap’s new breed—a new class of young, exciting hip-hop artists who are ushering in a new chapter in history. He calls it the “Internet era” and lists Wiz Khalifa, J. Cole and Lil B among those he not only respects as artists, but sees as friends. Unlike in past eras, when rappers were more competitive in nature, today’s young pack are eager to collaborate with one another. “It’s bullshit to be on some petty, dumb stuff, man,” he says. “I kind of see myself in every artist I run across. I wouldn’t want anybody shitting on me. I want them to show me the most love possible.”

That’s why Sean never got mad when he heard so many rappers employing the one-word punch-line flow that made Kanye’s ears perk up all those years ago. “When Drake admitted, like, ‘Yo, I got that from Big Sean,’ that gave me a lot of light, and I realized that I got the power to change hip-hop.” By now, though, he’s off that. Sean says you won’t hear that flow on his new album.

Currently preparing for a summer tour with Wiz Khalifa, Sean is hitting the streets, selling out shows in local markets, signing autographs for as many fans as he can until the venue kicks him out. “I talk a lot of shit in my rhymes, like I’m cocky, but as a person, I’m humble,” Sean says. “I’m eternally grateful for this opportunity to make it out the west side of Detroit, to do what I love and live my dreams. I just want to say thank you. I just also want everybody to know, man, they gotta follow they heart, because you don’t want to look back on your life when you’re 60 and wonder, woulda coulda shoulda did something. The time is now, man.” —Hyun Kim

More From XXL