It’s been evident that good music usually crops up around that late summer/early autumn season. This makes it the ideal period for Kanye West’s protégé Big Sean to be the first out of the block with his third mixtape installment of Finally Famous hosted by DJ Don Cannon.
Detroit’s XXL Freshman grad has put in blazing appearances on his own and various other mixtapes (including Kanye’s Good A.S.S Mixtape) and has the potential to become the next marquee signing of Mr West’s G.O.O.D Music label. It’s now a question of whether he has enough class to keep the momentum high for a label riding high on qualitative releases.
With an extravagant opening to kick things off, “Final Hour” is a cinematic curtain raiser which encompasses enough of Sean’s swag-engulfed flow and wordplay to start the mixtape off on a high. The originator of the now christened “Drake Flow,” Big Sean hosts enough styles for one to forget the now tired style of rap.
Pimped-out beats and infectious adlibs and verses sync well which adds flavour to Sean’s braggish ways. “What U Doin” and “Money and Sex” are the standard bearers for this style whilst “Supa Dupa Lemonade” still remains a favourite after its early release.
Finally Famous at times moves away from the flossed out rap which may wear thin with some Hip Hoppers to provide other standout moments. “Fat Raps,” featuring a host of other emcees, is a classic cipher track, whilst “High Rise” and the Drake-featured “Made” also prove solid while “Too Fake” switches gears with new-schoolers Chiddy Bang on the track.
Whilst Kanye may challenge the form of Hip Hop, with Big Sean it’s straight “Party and Bull****” [as a previous B.I.G once said]. Nevertheless, pulled off with a slickness and charisma which Mr West would approve of, Finally Famous Volume 3 is a bridge of new school swag with an old school pinch of dope rhymes and beats, completing an impressive trilogy of mixtapes and laying down the law for G.O.O.D music in the final quarter of 2010.
–Henry Yanney
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