Review: West Coast rapper Big Sean sharpened his pen and darkened his ink for his third album, trading in his bling for a thunderous storm-braving. Out through Good Music and Def Jam in early 2015, the LP, in true rap kingpin fashion, serves to simultaneously enlist and dagger-eye its own collaborators, including Drake, Kanye West, and Lil Wayne. With production from Key Wane, DJ Dahi, DJ Mustard and Kanye himself, the likes of 'Blessings', 'Win Some, Lose Some' and 'Stay Down' seem prescient for the time, when dark unison synths and tension-pluck progressions would parlay Sean's otherwise largely dry, un-effected vocals. Ten years on, Dark Sky Thinking feels like a personal reckoning for the rapper, scratching off the liquid latex gold to reveal a complicated character underneath.
… Read more