Album review: Big Sean, Dark Sky Paradise

Big Sean.

"Call me the greatest," is the big, bold claim that kicks off Big Sean's third album.

On previous releases, it's a claim that would have seen this class clown laughed all the way out of rap school.

And while Dark Sky Paradise won't land the Santa Monica rapper any Album of the Year awards, it shows Big Sean is continuing to learn, grow and improve.

It's certainly a darker album than 2012's Hall of Fame, with a selection of beats that mimic the grimy minimalism of recent releases by Drake or Kanye.

But it's Big Sean's emerging rapping style that stands out here, with a series of confident and intimate rhymes that have the ability to shock.

On the woozy ballad Win Some, Lose Some, Sean raps to himself from different stages of his life, an affecting and deeply personal exercise that ends with questions like, "Is this the example I'm tryna set?"

Sure, he's still giving too much limelight to other rappers - Drake on the stand out Blessings, Kanye on All Your Fault - but there are enough big moments here, from the stunning horn stabs of Paradise, to the slurred trap of I Know, to prove that Big Sean has come of age.

Artist: Big Sean
Album: Dark Sky Paradise
Label: Dej Jam
Verdict: Middling rapper makes like Drake

- TimeOut