Dr. Dre’s ‘2001’ changed hip hop in the wider public consciousness. Previously, gangsta rap was a popular subset in a genre that also promoted unbridled joy (De La Soul or Beastie Boys), cultural tolerance (A Tribe Called Quest) and jazz-infused ingenuity (The Roots) in equal measure. But the overwhelming critical and commercial success of ‘2001’ meant that a certain brand of misogyny, money worship and profanity began to dominate popular understandings of what hip hop is.
In 2017, there are plenty of acts who promote alternative narratives (Childish Gambino and Frank Ocean to name two) but a high percentage of commercial hip hop remains focused on aggressive, sweary descriptions of life’s extremes. Speaking on Capital XTRA last month, Big Sean outlined an awareness of this as he described how ‘I Decided’, his new album, was an attempt to look back on his life as his future self: “If you approach life like this is your chance to get it all right, and you’ve failed at every single thing you’ve ever tried to do, […] you approach every single day differently.”
The results are mixed. The lead single, Bounce Back, is about Big Sean’s will to overcome challenges and has lyrics of genuine insight and fatuous tedium in equal measure: “Last night took an L, but tonight I bounce back/Wake up every morning, by the night, I count stacks/Knew that ass was real when I hit, it bounce back.”
The problem is, every time he gets close to saying something meaningful, he undermines himself with off-the-shelf cliches and predictable self-aggrandisement.
The issue persists with Halfway Off The Balcony, a song that appears to allude to suicidal thoughts. This is a serious subject but the lyrics seem to engage with the subject only superficially: “Cause actually, I realised time's the most valuable, actually/So Imma call my favourite girl and she gon' bring that ass for me.”
There's little doubt that many young men speak in these terms when trying to convey feelings about romance and mental health. However, when a rapper has mandated himself to write about life with a broader perspective, well...was that really the best he could come up with?
The standout moment on the album is revealing in the wrong ways, too. It comes on No Favors, which features rap royalty in Eminem. Here, Eminem’s unhinged, furious lyrical tirade basically blasts Big Sean out of his own song, and nearly off the entire album.
In the scheme of 2017 hip hop, ‘I Decided’ is an OK record - competently produced and performed. But in the grand scheme of things it is pure landfill: industrially manufactured content to tick boxes for demographics. At best, it might make you dance - though the beats are pretty anonymous, too. At worst, it actually promotes negative stereotypes and devalues the way we speak to each other.
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