BigSean - Detroit 2 (2020) Hi-Res

“I always wanted to do a sequel to [Detroit] because I felt like it was an album,” Big Sean tells Apple Music. “It was a mixtape, but it was really an album for me, so in a way it's like I'm returning to the essence of myself, new and improved.” The original Detroit, released in 2012, was at once a love letter to Sean’s hometown and a marker of his ascension. Though it came just a year after Sean’s debut album Finally Famous, he’d already grown as an MC while developing relationships with living legends like Common, Young Jeezy, and Snoop Dogg—billed there as Snoop Lion—all of whom all show up on Detroit to tell stories about their relationships with the city. Detroit 2 boasts interludes in the image of its predecessor—this time from Dave Chappelle, Erykah Badu, and Stevie Wonder—and also musical appearances from Nipsey Hussle, Travis Scott, and Lil Wayne, among others.

Big Sean has a long and storied history of matching wits with the most formidable MCs of his time, and Detroit 2 is no different; Sean’s verses here are crafted with the unambiguous mission of lifelong permanence. “If I don't have a line in a song that doesn't make anybody [want to get it] tattooed on them, then I didn't do a good job,” Sean says. “Like, I pray somebody gets tattooed. That's like one of my goals.” Songs like “Lucky Me” and “Deep Reverence” are full of these kinds of quotables (“The only thought at night that comforts me is starving whoever’s hunting me,” he raps on “Lucky Me”), but also chock-full of insights about romantic relationships past and present, misperceived issues with other rappers, and even Sean’s own own health. It’s clear across Detroit 2 that the MC is still very much invested in the impact of his words. “I'm hungry on these songs,” Sean says. “I feel like I got a lot to prove to myself. My life’s purpose is to inspire. And I feel like the best way I can do that right now is through my music.”