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Big Sean is one of the most disrespected Hip-Hop artists out right now. But he's also one of the greatest. The debate on whose face should be carved into the hypothetical Hip-Hop Mount Rushmore of the 2010s is flawed. It’s damn near impossible to choose four artists to represent an entire deca...

Meetings at the label saying they gon' make Sean blow Turned the radio on and do I hear Sean? No Man please do not gimmick me, put me on the shelf and not remember me And treat me like a John Doe - Big Sean on Say You Will (2009) A decade before a self-recorded song could be uploaded to YouTube, gain viral notoriety, and land an unbelievably underdeveloped artist a record deal, aspiring young talents had to hope almost foolishly so for an opportunity to run into a music industry giant and offer them their demo. J. Cole infamously did so in 2007. The 2014 Forest Hills Drive artist waited outside of Roc-The-Mic studios in New York City for hours, and he continued to stand there as it started to rain. His goal was to meet Jay-Z and give him a beat CD in hopes that hed secure a placement on American Gangster , but when Hov finally pulled up and saw J. Cole, he curved the hell out of him. That meeting ironically wasnt even the catalyst that led to Coles Roc Nation signing, and it showed that even if you were able to come face-to-face with a popular record label executive, there was little to no chance that it would actually do anything for your career. Well, two years before J. Coles failed attempt at networking with Hov, Big Sean did something similar, and unlike his contemporarys tragic tale, Seans experience was almost mythical. A local up-and-coming artist and Friday Night Cypher rap battle regular at Detroits 102.7 FM radio station, Big Sean was urged by his friend and Woke Up collaborator Say It Aint Tone to pull up to the station and rap for Kanye West, who was there promoting his classic sophomore album, Late Registration . Once he arrived and made contact with Ye, the G.O.O.D. Music founder gave Sean an opportunity to spit 16 bars for him, but as Ye got more and more interested in Seans bars, those 16 bars turned into a ten-minute freestyle. Its possibly one of the coolest How I Got On stories of the 21st century, but that doesnt mean that everything that happened after that moment was easy for Sean. Having exchanged contact information, Big Sean worked tirelessly to maintain a relationship with Ye, and two years later after passing on a scholarship to attend Michigan State University he finally signed to G.O.O.D. Music. The challenges persisted, however, as the mainstream push that typically comes from signing to an artist like Kanye West was almost nonexistent. Sean contributed to Graduation which is so far the best-selling solo album of Yes entire career without even receiving a proper songwriting credit on Champion, and despite dropping his Finally Famous: The Mixtape Graduation s release, Big Sean was nowhere close to breaking into the mainstream. Nevertheless, Sean stayed down and worked on his craft as his celebrity gradually increased, and two years later, he returned with the sprawling 30-track mixtape, Finally Famous Vol. 2: UKNOWBIGSEAN . The gargantuan effort, which was leagues ahead of its predecessor, remains Seans longest project to date, and in addition to skit cosigns from the likes of Pharrell and MC Serch, UKNOWBIGSEAN featured a more skilled, confident, and, most interestingly, frustrated version of Sean. On the standout track Say You Will, Big Sean directly addressed how his trying relationship with his mentor and G.O.O.D. Music was affecting the trajectory of his career. The second installment of his Finally Famous mixtape series gave a huge boost to Seans profile, and following its release, Sean would go on to be a part of multiple legendary Hip-Hop moments at the turn of the decade. Between 2009 and 2010, the young artists talents were requested once again by his G.O.O.D. Music mentor, and although he wasnt featured on the final version of it (save for the iTunes bonus track See Me Now), Sean did participate in Yes epic My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sessions in Hawaii. In 2010, he also appeared on the 2010 XXL Freshman cover alongside the likes of Wiz Khalifa, Jay Rock, J. Cole, OJ Da Juiceman, Freddie Gibbs, and the late Nipsey Hussle. Its unclear whether or not he truly knew how iconic both of those experiences were at the time because in between the XXL cover that spring and the arrival of MBDTF that fall, Big Sean was more focused on his career than ever. And it showed with his summertime release of Finally Famous Vol. 3 The final installment of the Finally Famous mixtape series was loaded with underrated collabs, like Made with Drake, Fuck My Opponent with Tyga, and the vibey Fat Raps (Remix) cypher with Chuck Inglish, Asher Roth, Chip Tha Ripper, Dom Kennedy, and Boldy James. The tape also featured two of Seans earliest, albeit non-commercial, hits Super Duper Lemonade and Too Fake. The former was an exemplary showcase of his popular Super Duper Flow over Gucci Manes classic Lemonade beat, and with the help of Chiddy Bang, the latter track demonstrated that Sean could potentially succeed in a pop-rap ecosystem. For the first time in his career, Big Sean was in th Read more