Khulekani Magubane

Sean Anderson returns with an impressive piece that is likely to go down as a career high when it's all said and done. While the track list may prompt some anxiety that the album threatens to be bloated affair (21 tracks and well over a dozen guest appearances), Big Sean manages to weave together an entertaining, gripping and well-executed project and a worthy successor to his solid 2017 release I Decided. Sean puts his pen to work with witty bars found on records like Lucky Me, Full Circle featuring Diddy and Key Wane and Still I Rise featuring Dom Kennedy. Sean caters to the mash-out revelers on The Baddest and the blister-paced Harder Than My Demons. Songs like ZTFO, Feed and Time In are largely generic, but don't really detract from the album's shining moments. Highlights include Deep Reverence featuring Nipsey Hussle, Wolves featuring Post Malone, Lithuania featuring Travis Scott, Guard Your Heart featuring Anderson .Paak, Wale and Earlly Mac as well as Respect It featuring Hit-Boy Young Thug. It is a shame that Sean's career seems to be punctuated by an inability to crack the mainstream rap holy trinity tier (where his peers Drake, Kendrick Lamar and J Cole are lionised as gods in the panteon of their era), but Sean proves once again that he is just as capable as the three giants he is continuously compared to. Big Sean can certainly be proud of this offering and what he created on it, perhaps more so than he should be of any of his other solo releases.

Pusha T is in rare form on this project, even for an artist of his calibre. The Kanye-aided production is the perfect jet fuel, Push needs to narrate his dark narratives on drug trafficking and the lavish life it affords him. The Games We Play will be remembered as one of the finest musical moments of rap in the last decade. At the time Pusha T released this, he was embroiled in a high profile beef with the biggest artist in rap and, arguably, music. The fact that he emerged from that unscathed says a lot and Daytona is a compelling insight into why something that incredible is even possible.