Big Sean Has Radio Hits, But His Freestyle Game Is Still On FIRE (Video)

Today (February 3), Big Sean released I Decided, his fourth solo album and the first since 2015’s platinum-selling and Grammy-nominated Dark Sky Paradise. Supported by the hugely successful singles “Bounce Back,” “Moves,” and “Halfway Off the Balcony,” I Decided features Eminem, Jeremih, Migos, The Dream, as well as a choir from Flint, Michigan. The Detroit rapper has been busy on a promotional run, and yesterday, he visited Funkmaster Flex to deliver some nimble wordplay in the form of a freestyle that would make his Motor City comrade Royce 5’9 proud.

Detroit vs. Everybody: Eminem & Big Sean Refuse To Be Outdone On “No Favors” (Audio)

Starting with Freeway’s “What We Do” (produced by Just Blaze), Big Sean warms up and gets in the zone around the 1:27 mark, when he removes his newly bequeathed gift from Jay Z, a dazzling Roc-A-Fella chain. “I know ‘Ye proud of me, he took me out of debt/I know Jay proud of me, he put this ’round my neck/And I might just kill ISIS with the same ice pick/ that I murdered Donald Trump in the same night with,” he spits. At the 3:04 mark, the beat switches up to Mobb Deep’s “Quiet Storm,” which coincidentally perfectly describes how he approaches his delivery style. Unassuming yet forceful, Sean raps about his career choices, his come-up, and more before “Oochie Wally” comes on and the flow switches up again. “Look, all I ever did was figure it out/Back when a n**** used to have to live on the couch/And had to brainstorm the shit just to get through the drought/I strategized it in my head and started living it out,” he begins. It’s at the 5:40 mark that he truly gets into a groove, and before it’s all over he addresses his fans and haters directly.

#BonusBeat: Keeping busy, Big Sean visited The Tonight Show and performed “Halfway Off the Balcony.”

For more about Big Sean’s involvement with Flint and why he opted to include the city’s Chozen Choir on I Decided, check out his recent interview on The Daily Show.