Dante wrote:@EminemBase, maybe Sean isn't referring to a literal Hall of Fame, but his own Hall of Fame. What HE views as his best work. I'm surprised that you of all people would immediately jump to the conclusion that Sean is trying to skip his career and cement himself as a legend with "Hall of Fame" as his album title.
No one earns the right to release garbage material after all their good stuff, no matter how good it is. An artist should always strive to release the best music they can possible. "Guap" is just a radio single, it's meant to be dumbed down. Judge how good the album is and how good Sean is once it's released, and see if it deserves the name of "Hall of Fame".
No I'm not jumping to the conclusion that he's doing that with his album title, he fucking said it himself! I read a summary of why he called it that, out of his mouth not long ago.
Not only that, but it's what he raps about; the things he says, the bragging and talking as if he's some rap legend that's made groundbreaking material lmao. So far, all he's done is rap about how cool he has, how he's gonna spend money and how he gets ass.
He's done nothing to earn bragging rights.
And Eminem did still make good music on Encore.
Songs like "Mosh" (a single too by the way) are fucking mind-blowing compared to 'Guap'.
Where's the art? it's just bragging and flaunting. Lame as fuck.
So many black rappers get a pass, because they're black. Imaging if Em first hit the scene, with a bunch of singles with him waving money about, with asses and saying he's the shit. He would be fucking crucified... he was still dismissed by some, with shit like "The Way I Am!"... I see nothing but flaunting, and really flimsy content from Sean so far.
These should be his golden years... why do so many care so little about what they do? They claim to 'live and breathe' and really care about it and yet they settle for such mediocrity... is that REALLY the best shit he could come up with? It's making music for the sake of making it, it's wanting all the rewards and praise, with very little creative effort... what's the point in adding another random, steaming turd to the pile of redundant shit of the past decade...
He has a platform most would dream for and many never reach... and how does he use that platform? To brag and flaunt, aimlessly, like every other lame rapper out at the moment. Like, why not take in the gravitas of the situation, just think to yourself as an artist "the world is listening to me... this is my chance" and make it fucking worth it! It's your chance to provoke, to be daring, to do something truly unique, to make an impact... instead... we get asses and money. Brilliant.
Even you buy into this mentality that a single is something to waste... 'it's just a radio single'... why do so many rappers think these kinds of songs are shortcuts or waste their opportunity to do something original. A single isn't a throwaway, it's an opportunity - the only remedy to a hit is melody. If something is melodic - it's memorable; the more memorable or melodic it is, the bigger a hit it will be, and you can use that structure for good, bad, deep or flimsy music...
Just because it's a single doesn't mean it has to be trash.
I think perhaps we all give 'creatives' too much credit; we presume there's more inherent talent than there is due to the fact most of us don't try or have no desire to... make music, or whatever, when in reality - if somebody like Big Sean can make it... I could fucking make it, and many of us could make it; as a lot of these guys' content shows such... shallow artistic sensibility. So it's just about rhythmic and rhyming, but in terms of ideas, lately, they all suck ass.
If I was on my 2nd album, thinking... how I wanna look back on this period of my career, the period in which I make my prime mark on the world; I wouldn't give a fuck if "Guap" was a mixtape track, I wouldn't want it out period. I would want everything (or as best I could) that I made to mean something and to last; to be analyzed and picked apart. They have such low standards.
I don't think "Guap" is intentionally dumbed down, I think that's Sean.
Why do people seem to think a song has to be dumb to work? "Lose Yourself" is the biggest hit of Em's career, and bigger than any 'dumb single' in the past decade and yet it's also perhaps his most consistently complex and webbed song in terms of rhymes and lyrics, and his thoughts are eloquent, adult, insightful and poetic. Dumb doesn't = hit. Melody does.
So many fucking rappers completely waste their platform, to say... nothing.
