Big Sean

Kanye West’s Good Music artist Big Sean talks exclusively with WHO?MAG TV.  Big Sean, who won both a BET and a Billboard Award for his smash hit “Mercy”, talks about meeting Kanye West and more.

Interview conducted by Will Hernandez

WHO?MAG:  How did you hook up with Kanye West?
BIG SEAN:  I met him in Detroit at a radio station Hot 105.9, which is now Hot 102.7.  He was promoting his album “Late Registration”.  I was still in high school.  I was in my Junior Year going to my Senior Year and I was a telemarketer making like $100 a week.  I remember going to the bank cashing my check thinking “Damn man, this sucks! Something else has to give.”  Right then, that’s when my boy Tone told me to come down and rap for Kanye.  I was at the bank cashing the $100 check I worked so hard for and then Tone called me like “man, you know Kanye is down at the Radio One station.  Man I tried to call you 15 times.  This is the last time and you finally picked up!”  He said “Kanye is down at the radio station and if you go down and rap for him, he will sign you.”  I was like “Man, whatever!”  He was like “C’mon man, for real!  Come down.”

So I walked out of line.  The line was so long on a Saturday afternoon at the bank.  So I walked out without cashing my check and I was like super broke.  Luckily one of my other friends had money and Tone told my friend with the money that I was about to go down the radio station and rap for Kanye, so my boy gave me $20 to drive down there.  All he asked was if he could come with me.  Since I have been doing a radio show there every Friday where rappers come and battle each other on air, so I have a great relationship with the radio station.  And it was Saturday, and they do their show every Friday, so I was just there the day before.  So I went to the radio station and said something like I left something there because I was just there last night and they let me in since I got that relationship.

So anyway, I caught Kanye as he was walking out.  Right before his bodyguard slammed me and was like “what’s good?”  I told him I was an aspiring MC, I do the show here every Friday and can I rap for you?  He was like “man, I gotta go, I gotta go”.  I said “please man, you’re my hero.  Can I just spit something, you know, your killing it”.  He said “alright, but you have to rap while we’re walking out the station.”  So as we were walking out the station, I knew it was my one chance to live an irregular life and be what I want to be, so I spit my heart out and I ended up spitting for like 10 minutes.  He told me I only have 16 bars, but I rapped for 10 minutes.  And a big crowd came out when I was done and started clapping.  That was a big moment.  I gave him a CD and he listened to it.  And the story goes on and on, but it took years of going back and forth of him sending me beats until he was finally like, man I want to sign you.  And eventually, I signed to Good Music.

WHO?MAG: How much of an influence has Detroit had on your music?
BIG SEAN:  All you hear coming up in the D is like, all the music that’s popular.  You hear everything.  Detroit is like a melting pot.  There’s heavy south music, you hear west coast music, you hear east coast music, and then you also hear native Detroit music like Blade Icewood, people like Tone Tone, Eminem, everybody who was doing their thing on the local level definitely had a big influence on my music, Street Lordz, all them.

WHO?MAG: What are some more of your influences?
BIG SEAN:  The biggest influences come from non-musical stuff.  I get a lot of my inspiration just from going through situations, being with certain girls, going through certain times or people dropping certain knowledge on you.  I feel like my biggest musical influence is probably Kanye, because he taught me so many methods and shit when it comes to working on albums.  So he’s definitely one of them.

WHO?MAG: How is it working with No I.D.?
BIG SEAN:  Legendary, man. No I.D. has done countless Jay-Z songs, countless Kanye songs, countless everybody.  He did so many artists.  He’s a legend, you know, being in the studio with him, Kanye, Pharrell, people like that.  It’s legendary.

WHO?MAG:: How is it working with Kid Cudi?
BIG SEAN:  Cudi’s dope, man.  Definitely got love for him. That’s the Good Music family.

WHO?MAG:: Anything else you want to tell your fans?
BIG SEAN:  I appreciate everybody who supports me, man.  Whether you buy it or download it or whatever, as long as you hear it, that just means a lot.