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Big Sean celebrates the five-year anniversary of Dark Sky Paradise: I had to prove myself

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ABC/Fred LeeToday marks the five-year anniversary of Big Sean‘s third studio album Dark Sky Paradise, his most praised piece of work to date. The Detroit rapper shared the album cover on Instagram with the caption, “5 years ago today, changed my life. Thank you. Favorite song?”

Fans had trouble picking their favorite songs on the album, mentioning chart-topping singles like “Paradise,” “Blessings,” club favorite “I Don’t F*** with You,” and “Play No Games” featuring Chris Brown. The music video for that song was inspired by the hit 90’s TV show Martin

Dark Sky Paradise, which showed off how Sean had grown both as a producer and a lyricist, debuted at number one in its first week, before reaching platinum status. The album featured guest appearances from DrakeTy Dolla $ignLil WayneE-40 and Jhené Aiko, with productions credits from Kanye WestMike WiLL Made-ItDJ Mustard and more.

“Blessings,” featuring Drake, went viral after Stephen Curry‘s daughter Riley sang “Way up, I feel blessed” — a line from the song’s hook — during the post-game NBA Finals conference in 2015.

“I was in a place of feeling like I had to prove myself,” he said of Dark Sky Paradise in an interview with Complex. He noted that he wanted to make an album that was an “accurate representation” of himself and his life at the time.

“I wanted to share my experience, relate to people, and feel proud of the work I had done,” he said. “I also didn’t give a f*** about anything else at that time except being the best and putting my best foot forward.” 

Big Sean is expected to drop a new album before he takes the stage in April at Coachella.

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