What You Expect

Big Sean And Hit-Boy Deliver An Elegant Performance Of ‘What A Life’ On ‘Fallon’

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Big Sean and Hit-Boy brought their What You Expect EP single “What A Life” to the Tonight Show stage on Thursday with a thrilling, elegant performance. Decked out in matching tailored suits and enjoying a luxurious meal in a stately lounge, the dynamic duo is presented with a mic for Sean and a beat machine atop a grand piano for Hit-Boy. While the performance begins while they’re still seated, they smoothly slide from their well-appointed booth to a makeshift stage in the center of the room, where Sean goes for broke and Hit shows off his finger drumming skills.

The new project, which finds the two frequent collaborators paired up for a full five tracks that demonstrate the breadth and depth of their chemistry, is also the first of Big Sean’s new label venture independent of his past association with Kanye West’s GOOD Music. The timing of its release turned out to be opportune as well, as Ye’s appearance on the Drink Champs podcast just days later found Sean’s onetime mentor throwing him under the bus by saying that signing Sean to GOOD was the “worst thing” he ever did. Sean laughed off his old boss’ digs, although he did point out that Ye still owes him millions from their initial deal.

Instead, Sean and Hit focused on the positive, following up with more videos from the EP, including “The One” and “Chaos,” showing that they’ll both be just fine without help from the mercurial Mr. West.

Watch Big Sean and Hit-Boy’s late-night performance of “What A Life” above.

Big Sean And Hit-Boy Get Back To Basics In The Picturesque ‘The One’ Video

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At the rate that Big Sean and Hit-Boy are dropping videos for their new EP, What You Expect, they’ll have one for every one of the project’s five tracks by this time next week. The dynamic duo kicked off the rollout for the EP with the eyebrow-raising video for “What A Life” in which Sean allowed himself to be covered in bees. Then, they dropped the “Loyal To A Fault” video featuring Bryson Tiller and Lil Durk, taking over a bowling alley for a private party.

Now, they have followed up with the short-and-simple video for “The One,” which finds the two collaborators working on tracks in a bedroom studio with a view of the hills through a floor-to-ceiling window — honestly, that’s way more inspiring than the usual, dungeon-like setup. Shot in black and white to highlight its simplicity, the video gets straight to the heart of what makes their connection work so well: A shared love for the process of making music, pushing themselves by doing what each does best.

The EP arrived in the midst of a career resurgence for both artists. While Big Sean is no longer on GOOD Music (a good thing, considering how Kanye supposedly feels about the signing) but dropping revitalized music (much of it produced by Hit-Boy), Hit-Boy is also recovering from his negative associations with Ye, once again becoming an in-demand producer for the likes of Nas, Benny The Butcher, and a resurgent Dom Kennedy.

Watch Big Sean and Hit-Boy’s “The One” video above.

What You Expect is out now via Def Jam. Listen to it here.

Big Sean And Hit-Boy Connect For The Fiery ‘What You Expect’ EP

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Though Hit-Boy has always been one of the most respected producers in the game, he’s really been on a streak lately. After producing not one but two projects with Nas that helped catapult the veteran New York rapper back into the realm of modern hip-hop heroes, now he’s connected with Detroit’s Big Sean for a new EP. You’d think with King’s Disease II coming out just a few short months ago the producer might rest on his laurels for a moment, but no.

Rolling out the collaboration slowly with a new single called “What A Life” a few days ago, today the duo announced that song was the lead-off for a whole EP, and now that project is here, too. Sharing another video for the stacked collaboration, “Loyal To A Fault,” with cameos from Bryson Tiller and Lil Durk, the new EP’s tracklist also includes performances from Babyface Ray and 42 Dugg, but no one else. Clearly, it will be primarily focused on how Sean and Hit-Boy vibe together. Of course, some of the best songs off Sean’s latest album Detroit 2 were when Hit-Boy was involved, but this new song collection emphasizes that more than ever.

Check out the video for “Loyal To A Fault” up above and stream the entire tape below.

Big Sean And Hit-Boy Announce Their Collaborative ‘What You Expect’ EP

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Big Sean/Hit-Boy

So far, the creative partnership between Big Sean and Hit-Boy has been massively fruitful. Beginning with their work on GOOD Music’s 2012 posse cut “Clique,” the duo has put out almost a decade’s worth of hits and fan-favorite bangers, right up to last year’s Detroit 2 and its fiery singles “Deep Reverence,” “Lithuania,” and “Lucky Me.” They kept that momentum this year with “What A Life,” which turned out to be the first single from a collaborative EP the two announced today, What You Expect.

As revealed by Big Sean, the EP will include five new songs, a number he increased from just one new song after a month of chatting up how much he’s enjoying himself just rapping lately. “I had fun doing that LA Leakers freestyle n droppin the What A Life song/video,” he wrote on Twitter today. “it feel good to be active, n just doin whatever the f*ck I wanna do.” Last week, Sean drew attention for delivering a nearly nine-minute freestyle over four different beats, tackling Kanye West’s “Hurricane,” Drake and Jay-Z’s “Love All,” Jay-Z and Memphis Bleek’s “Dear Summer,” and Nardo Wick’s “Who Want Smoke??”

Meanwhile, Hit-Boy is riding high after his pair of successful King’s Disease releases with Nas, which prompted the Queens legend to call the California producer his Quincy Jones.

What You Expect is due 10/29 via Def Jam.