From Justin Bieber to Drake, Big Sean Breaks Down His Favorite Features of All Time

“Dave sent me that song a long time ago. For some reason, I meant to do it a long time ago and I didn’t because I couldn’t crack it off the first few listens. Then, one day, I just caught the vibe on it. 

“I loved the family approach and the honesty in it. Him just naming off his kids and his family members inspired me. I like the UGK sample in there too. Bun’s on it. He’s always been a mentor of me, as well. He’s always been super supportive of me. My first shows in Houston, Bun would always take me around, and he got me Frenchy’s Fried Chicken. That was some of my favorite fried chicken, and he was always supportive in that way. I’m a huge UGK fan. 

“Dave East is def cut from a certain cloth. I respect him as a lyricist and I’m happy for the success of his new project. Being off of Def Jam, I know what that’s like to venture off into an independent bag. That’s something I really, really respect. That’s always my main goals — to collaborate with independent artists, too.”

“Leon asked me to do both of them, and he was just like, ‘Pick one.’ I picked one and then I ended up catching a vibe randomly in the studio for ‘Vibes Don’t Lie.’ I sent it to him and he was like, ‘I need you to do both of them, bro. Why not?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, alright, cool.’ He played them for his label, and they loved both of them.

“I’m excited for what me and him got coming, too. We got something else cooking up for me. I’m just happy for him, all of his Grammy nominations and his hard work paying off. I’ve known him for awhile now and he deserves it all.”

“That was a special moment, because my producer Key Wane produced the song. It was a big moment for him. I remember how excited Drake was when he got the verse. He was very ecstatic. He was very surprised by the verse. It had him hyped up — super hyped up. That was just a classic moment back then during Nothing Was The Same.”

“‘Clique’ is very special to me — not because it’s just Hov and Ye, but because there were eight other verses on the song, and they all got taken off. We don’t gotta talk about who got taken off, but it was just an honor for [Ye] and Hov to say I gotta stay on it.

“I did the verse without knowing that was gonna happen. I just did the verse shooting in the dark. I didn’t do it thinking, ‘Oh, this is gonna be a song with Ye and Jay-Z.’ I probably would have approached it differently then, but I really approached it like hearing a beat, doing a verse, a hook and leaving it in the session.

“I was there that night in London, and we were recording Cruel Summer. I was there with Hit-Boy, Mike Dean, John Legend, and Don C. People when they heard the song, they were like, ‘Yeah. That’s cool.’ But when Ye came in, he was like, ‘Yeah, this is it! This is one of the ones that we needed!’ He was super hyped. Everyone started getting more hyped. Then, when people started adding more color to the painting, people were able to see it for what it is. That was definitely a big moment for me.”

“Me and Rocky were going back and forth on the record. Playboi Carti was at my house. It was A$AP, Playboi Carti, and Ferg was on the record too, doing ad-libs. Carti was brand new and very timid. Carti is someone I really respect a lot. He’s a student of the game for real. I saw it back then how he was. He was observant. I also just think he’s brave enough to do it his way. That was a fun moment. I really enjoyed it off of Cozy Tapes 2.”

“Will reached out to me and was like, ‘I’m back doing this rap thing, for real.’ I kind of followed his lead when it came to his vision and what he wanted to do. Bro won the first rap Grammy ever. Bro doing his thing. I just respect somebody that far into their career that’s done that many things, has Oscars and all that.

“[For the video, the chemistry was cool] because he had the same people that did the last Bad Boys movie shoot it. And Will famously passed on The Matrix, so he was like, ‘I want to do The Matrix one time [laughs].’ So he had all the same cameras. I don’t know what type of bag Will Smith got, but it felt like we were shooting a movie. That’s somebody who wasn’t in my mind when it came to collaborations per se like when I think of features, because he’s so big in other fields, but it was definitely an honor to collaborate with him. He’s been such a big influence in my life in so many different ways with movies, TV, and music. He’s really the Fresh Prince for real.”

“I appreciated going into the studio with Em and talking with him. That was probably the biggest moments of my personal childhood dreams. It was me and Eminem in studio — this was back when Eminem took a break, too, so you didn’t really hear that much from him. I don’t know if he took a break or was getting his s–t together ’cause I think he was still in the studio everyday, but what I remember most was watching South Park and eating pizza in the studio. We’d debate what was better between Family Guy and South Park.

“We’d talk about life, and I told the story before how Slim Shady LP was the first album I bought at Costco with my birthday money as a kid. I still have it. It’s at my mom’s house. I went to my mom’s house and we have a family house in Detroit. I had all my CDs there and I didn’t want to be a lame and bring the Slim Shady LP to the studio. At the end of the session, bro took my CDs out. He took out Finally Famous, Hall of Fame and asked me to sign them. That was the last time in my life where I said I would never try to be cool.”

“We were just super cool [on tour]. I was recording the whole time and he was recording. We exchanged ideas and ‘Shut Up’ came about after touring. He caught a vibe with Helluva; he’s a producer from Detroit. He’s goated. But with Russ, he just tapped into that Detroit bag and he was just like, ‘This makes sense to you too.’ That was easy.”

“I didn’t know what that was going to be like. I was in the studio with Calvin Harris, and didn’t know who was going to be on the record. I knew Pharrell was on it. I was like, ‘Oh cool. It sounded like some Pharrell sh-t.’ I was really f–king with the song [‘Slide’] Calvin had with Frank Ocean and Migos. I knew it was a part of the same album and stuff, so that was my first U.K. No. 1. I still go around the world hearing that song all the time.”

“Me and Bieber got some history. Out of all the features I’ve done with him, ‘No Pressure’ is probably the latest one, but ‘As Long As You Love Me’ was a very nostalgic, old record. It was 2011. My voice was super high-pitched. I was just young. He was still Justin Bieber, even back then. That was a great moment for me. That might have been my first top five record on the Billboard Hot 100. I always f–k with Biebs. It’s been great seeing his progression.”