Big Sean Debuts New Clothing Line in Feb/March 2013 VIBE Fashion Spread

IF YOU HAD MET a young Sean Michael Anderson, the G.O.O.D. Music junior spitter better known as Big Sean, as a preteen, you might think him to be holier than thou. His moral compass has always pointed positive, earning him primetime local news coverage at age 12, when the private school alum swore off sex and drugs in a music video sponsored by Children’s Center of Detroit. The song is called “Abstain”—“Don’t mess with drugs/Or try to creep/Unless y’all want to end up/Six feet deep,” he warns, tall-tee collar drooping like a necklace. Yet while the Detroit player’s vices have emerged in his adulthood (rewind the certified real asstate agent’s opening verse on “Mercy”), he’s still all about delivering the good word.

“I’m not trying to preach,” clarifies the now-24-year-old lyricist. He’s slouched on a yellow couch in his 106 & Park dressing room, ignoring the 446 unread messages on his iPhone 5, as he prepares to premiere his “Guap” video. “I’m not gonna tell you not to smoke weed and not to have sex—[but] put a condom on. Don't smoke weed all day. Take care of your business. Have a good time, sip champagne, ’cause if you work hard, you deserve it.”

Take a look at Sean Don’s garments and it’s easy to see he’s feasting on the fruits of his dedicated labor. That scrawny kid wearing shin-length baby blue B-ball shorts in the YouTube throwback is now the scrawny rap superstar whose threads today include a black Fear of God lambskin leather hoodie, zippered harem pants and scuffed Timbs. It’s all the product of his now-mythical impromptu audition for Kanye West in 2005, when Sean intercepted his idol at Detroit’s 105.9 FM [now HOT 102.7 FM] and unleashed an impassioned 10-minute freestyle that led to a deal. After dropping his well-received yet superficial debut, Finally Famous: The Album, he strived for better balance of style and substance with his superb mixtape Detroit and upcoming sophomore album, Hall of Fame, one of the most anticipated projects of 2013. “When we started doing the G.O.O.D. Music album, that’s when I really found my flow—I stopped caring what people think,” says Sean, who admits to once mimicking his mentor’s raps. “I let J. Cole hear [the album] and he was like, ‘Oh my God!’ Kanye was blown away. People have no idea.”

Along with the festive and fun lead single “Guap,” memories of struggle still soak into Hall of Fame, adding gloomy, nostalgic tearjerkers like “World Ablaze” to his upbeat catalog. While he’s still taking musical and fashion cues from his ’Ye—see Sean’s as-yet-unnamed clothing line, whose staple pieces incorporate leather-accented shirts and lots of lions—there are limits to following in Kanye’s Air Yeezys. “I would wear a kilt if I was in Scotland, but over there they wear it with no underwear,” says Sean. “I’ma have to break tradition. I don’t want my balls all hanging out there.”

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