Big Sean “Blessings”: Hear Kanye West and Drake’s first collaboration since 2009 (AUDIO).

Kanye West and Drake Team Up for the First Time Since 2009 on Big Sean’s New Song

Kanye West and Drake Team Up for the First Time Since 2009 on Big Sean’s New Song

Brow Beat has moved! You can find new stories here.
Brow Beat
Slate's Culture Blog
Jan. 30 2015 10:41 AM

Kanye West and Drake Team Up for the First Time Since 2009 on Big Sean’s New Song

154318675-rapper-big-sean-performs-at-the-hollywood-palladium-on
Big Sean.

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Kanye West and Drake have long had a somewhat thorny relationship. They’ve each taken shots at one another in their lyrics. Drake even publicly criticized Kanye’s Yeezus in a Rolling Stone interview (and then proceeded to deny saying it). And though they’ve appeared to be on good terms recently, they haven’t appeared on a track together since 2009’s “Forever” (excluding Drake’s scrapped contribution to 2010’s “All of the Lights”). But leave it to mutual friend—and Kanye West’s labelmate—Big Sean to facilitate their first collaboration in six years. Next month, Sean will release his third album, Dark Sky Paradise, and last night he released a new single, “Blessings,” on which all three are in top form.

The Vinylz-produced song echoes the unsettling tone of Sean’s “Paradise” (and even his previous collaboration with Drake, “All Me”). Over warbling synths and a spastic 808 arrangement perfect for Sean’s typical offbeat flow, the three trade humblebrags about their accomplishments and hunger to be the best—and, to my ears, that title might surprisingly go to Sean on this particular track. Drake, as usual, provides a catchy hook (“Way up I feel blessed”), but Kanye is undoubtedly the song’s headliner. And he closes the track with cheeky references to Snapchat and Star Wars as well as a hint that he might be starting his own Montessori-style school.

Dee Lockett is a writer for Vulture and a former Slate editorial assistant.