Big Sean has been teasing for some time that he has a joint project in the works with The Alchemist, and now it’s official.
In a new digital cover story with XXL, the Detroit rapper was talking about a short song snippet that pops up at the end of the video for his track “Together Forever,” but does not appear anywhere on his new album Better Me Than You.
“That’s part of a side quest I’m doing with Alchemist that me and him been locked in on,” Sean explained. “So, excited about that. That’s a project that me and Alchemist are working on together, so that’s why that part is not on the album.”
Speculation about a joint project has been running wild. Following the “Together Forever” video’s release, Sean added fuel to the fire by hinting at the possibility during an interview with Complex.
When asked how he deals with the challenges and stresses of being a famous musician — which seemingly got the best of him in a recent emotional Instagram Live — Sean said: “I have been burnt out lately because I have chosen to take so much on by doing multiple music projects. So what I mean by that is my album, and then also cooking up with Alchemist too.”
He talked about some other potential upcoming projects as well, revealing that he’s been working on a few “ideas” for his and girlfriend Jhené Aiko‘s Twenty88 duo, one of which may be added to Better Than Me You post-initial-release alongside a couple of high-profile collaborations that didn’t make the cut.
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“Conceptually, I got this song I did with KAYTRANADA called ‘My Life’ as the last song. That kind of concludes the album from a conceptual standpoint, and it’s basically more so saying it is the light at the end of the tunnel, and I wanted to end it like that,” he said.
“But then, after I had already turned it in and was releasing it, I was like, I kind of do want to go one more step further and maybe even add an alternate ending, how they do with movies and stuff to the album.”
He added: “I’ve been looking at [the album] as a living, breathing being because I decided to put it out this week. I was going to keep holding onto it. I had a song with Nicki [Minaj] that I was working on. One of the Twenty88 songs, I was like, ‘Oh, it kind of fits better on the album,’ but it wasn’t all the way done yet.”