The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Tuesday, January 31, 2017 — 5

Sal DiGioia/MICHIGAN DAILY

“I
hope
you
take
some

inspiration from it and I hope you
like it. We about to get this shit
poppin’.”

Those were some of the last

words before Big Sean premiered
his
fourth
studio
album,
I

Decided.,
on
Sunday
night

among friends, family and some
limited press at the Museum
of Contemporary Art in his
hometown of Detroit, Michigan.

Despite having been born in

California,
the
twenty-eight

year-old emcee went on to explain
that, in reality, he “spent [his]
entire life in Detroit,” reminding
the small crowd of the names of
his old streets and schools. He
affirmed: “Anytime you see me
on Jimmy Fallon, or Saturday
Night Live, or anywhere,” it’s for
the city.

“This is my fourth studio

album: I Decided.,” he concluded.
Then it began.

***

Apparently,
Big
Sean
has

never before been allowed to
premiere one of his albums in
Detroit, as record labels favor
bigger marketplaces (think New

York and Los Angeles), a fact
that added extra weight to the
live debut of his newest lyrical
nods at the city, the first of which
appear no longer than thirty
seconds into his first verse.

After a tense intro featuring

a seasoned male voice boasting
about having worked the same job
for 45 years, Sean raps over rich,
moody keys, with his voice as the
only percussion on the beggining
of “Light (Ft. Jeremih).” He
eventually arrives at a heartfelt
hook (“Even if you take away my
life / They can’t take away my
light”) and, finally, an iconic grin
at his family members (“Got the
whole city on fire / This the flow
that finna have my whole family
retire”), many of whom happened
to be present in the room.

The third track on the album is

“Bounce Back,” and Sean added
a more localized flair to the song
by cooly announcing, “Detroit’s
gonna bounce back!” The salute
was warmly received, and it
acted as a seamless transition
into the fourth song, which is
guaranteed to become a staple
Detroit anthem. “No Favors,”
which features Detroit-native
and rap legend Eminem, turned
the room up to another level and
even inspired someone in the
crowd to yell out, twice: “The

whole city been waiting on that!”

The fifth song, “Jump Out The

Window,” is bouncy, so Big Sean
started walking around the room
— shifting the crowd’s attention
away
from
the
carefully-

illuminated area where he had
rapped
the
first

few tracks aside an
artificial tree — and
greeted attendees,
most of whom he
seemed genuinely
personally excited
to see. He wore all
black, including a
blacked out Detroit
Tigers cap and a
discretely branded
I Decided. hoodie. But three
diamond
Michigan
mittens,

dangling from his neck and
decorated in different shades of
gold, brightened up his entire
ensemble.

Next up was “Moves,” and

once again the room became
a
full-fledged
party.
People

were crowding around Sean,
obviously, but the energy was still
more intimate and recreational
than business-fueled. When the
album’s singles — which were
released beforehand and have
already turned into monstrous
hits — came on, the room became
particularly excited as attendees
rapped every single word, myself
included.

“This is my favorite song on

the album,” Big Sean whispered
to me and a few other fortunate
journalists standing beside him
as the seventh song, “Same Time
Pt. 1 (Ft. TWENTY88),” which
includes lines about someone
acting “out of line,” queued up.
Trapped in complete awe as he
spat, it looked as if he was still,
even at the debut of his fourth
album, nervous everything could
all go wrong on any note. It never
did, but Sean writes, performs
and lives like it might. It’s what
keeps him grounded, humble
and, above all else, driven. That
attitude is stamped all over I
Decided.

“Halfway Off the Balcony,”

the heartfelt third single off
the album, came next. When it
ended, a slow, eerie, bass-heavy
beat came on, and Sean began
rapping along, building around
the motivated, conscious hook:
“Voices in my head saying I can
do it better / Voices in my head
saying better do it better.” On
first listen, the track, “Voices In
My Head,” somewhat parallels
“Deep (feat. Lil Wayne)” from
Sean’s third album, Dark Sky
Paradise.

“Stick to the player hatin’!”

warns Sean later on the song. On
the tracklist, there appear to be
two parts — “Voices In My Head
/ Stick To The Plan” — and the
latter half has a turnt-up, trap-
like beat led by long, thick bass
kicks. Though it acts as the most
telling predictor of the rowdy
surprise to come moments later,
its debut was particularly unique,
as it is placed right before “Sunday
Morning Jetpack,” a thankful,
even spiritual, reflection that
Big Sean premiered on “Saturday
Night Live,” and the hyper-
personal twelfth track, “Inspire

Me,” during which Sean walked
across the room to seek out his
mother, then proceeded to rap
the lyrics to her.

The
thirteenth
song,

“Sacrifices
(ft.
Migos)”
is

positively
guaranteed
to
be

a
monster
hit.

I
wrote
that

assumption down
immediately,
as

soon as I heard
its
explosive

drums
and
the

intensity
in
Big

Sean’s voice. But
once Offset came
in,
first
teasing

fans
with
his

famous ad-lib, then delivering
a quintessentially charismatic
verse before, inevitably, passing
the microphone to his bandmate
Quavo, the radio potential for this
deep cut multiplied immensely.

And
finally,
the
closer,

“Bigger Than Me.” It features
a
meditative,
reflective,

monologue-like verse in which
Sean reminisces about growing
up in Detroit, going out to see the
world and, eventually, returning
home as an older, wiser man.
“That’s when I realized, shit’s
bigger than me,” he admits,
expressing
his
spirituality

through
the
chillingly
real

confession: “God talking to me
telepathically, like it only happen
if you let it.” Maybe that’s what
Big Sean Decided.

Eventually,
the
collective

voices of the Chozen Choir from
Flint, Michigan arrived, adding
purely childish ambition to the
track. But even this inspiring
feature doesn’t distract from
the album’s emotional grand
finale: a voice recording I expect
belongs to Sean’s mother. In
the final moments of I Decided.,
Myra Anderson tells her son she
loves him, and expressing her
pride before concluding with a
humanizing anecdote. All of the
above things are still true, she
says, “even when you do stupid
things that I warned you about…”

***

In his short speech following

the premiere, Sean called it,
“By far my best album,” and
then
again
emphasized
his

unswerving loyalty to Detroit,
noting: “There’s not a lot of
people in my position, so I’ll keep
kicking down doors.”

He is dead serious. On first

listen, I Decided. comes across
as
his
most
finely-tuned,

thematically
cohesive
project

yet. Its tracks bear the wisdom
and maturity of an aging, well-
experienced man, but still prove
unwilling to sacrifice energy and
hunger.

As far as the whole Detroit

thing goes — Sean has already
done almost everything but run
for mayor. He has been vocally
representing it for years with
localized slang, and even named
his critically-acclaimed mixtape
from 2012, Detroit, after the city.

Now, Big Sean finally premiers

a studio album in his hometown.
Michiganders can return the
favor by listening to I Decided.,
out this Friday.

It’s for Detroit: Big Sean’s
intimate listening party

SALVATORE DIGIOIA

Daily Arts Writer

At Detroit’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Writer Sal
DiGioa witnessed the sonic surrealness of Big Sean’s latest

I Decided.

Big Sean

Release Date:
February 3rd

Def Jam

VALENTINO

Valentino’s Spring 2017 Couture

show marked the first collection for
Pierpaolo Piccioli post-departure
from his 25-year-long co-designer,
Maria Grazia Chiuri. He turned
to mythology for inspiration. The
result? A collection shaped around
Greek goddesses.

Using Greek goddesses as a

source of inspiration is far from
novel. Countless collections have
called upon the Greek muses as a
basis for their aesthetic. However,
for a defining collection from a
very Italian designer of a very Ital-
ian brand, this was not only a stra-
tegic choice but an effortless fit.

Recently, the landscape of haute

couture has been marked by great
volatility — the head designers play
a complex game of musical chairs,

hopping from fashion house to
fashion house. As the designers
fluctuate, so too do the core com-
plexions of the brands. By basing
his collection on goddesses, Pic-
cioli was making a declaration that
he does not intend to digress from
the ethereal femininity that Valen-
tino has championed for the past
several decades.

Ultimately, it is not the inspi-

ration that delineates a collection
but rather the designer’s execu-
tion. Piccioli pledged himself to
his celestial inspiration, naming
every look after legitimate Greek
mythological figures and incor-
porating details from their nar-
ratives into the individual pieces.
The result — a collection that was
radiant and surprisingly intellec-
tual.

Look 45: Titled Pasithea, one

of the Graces. Daughter of Zeus
and wife of Hypnos, Pasithea

was the goddess of relaxation
and meditation. This manifests
in the dress’ elegant simplicity,
a comparatively relaxed dress
in conjunction with the more
ornate looks.

Look 47: Named Pandora,

after the famous first human.
Infamous for her accidental
introduction of evil into the
world, Piccioli opted for a literal
interpretation of his inspiration,
Pandora herself is hand-embroi-
dered on the left side of the gar-
ment in a golden orange thread.

Look 50: Christened Arethu-

sa. Arethusa was a nymph who
was transfigured into a flowing
spring, surrounded by flowers.
The piece has an elongated stripe
which originates below the neck-
line and extends to the floor. Sur-
rounding the stripe are macramé
flowers, much like flowers sur-
rounding a stream.

TESS TOBIN
Daily Arts Writer

STYLE REVIEW
As far as the
whole Detroit
thing goes, Sean
has already done
almost everything
but run for mayor.

Valentino’s Piccioli returns to roots
for first solo couture collection

Drawing from Greco-Roman stlyes, recent collections proves radiant

On
January
21st,
millions

marched.
They
marched

specifically
against
Donald

Trump’s behavior, rhetoric and
inauguration,
and
marched

in solidarity around the globe
against the treatment of women
worldwide. The march aimed to
be as intersectional as possible,
marching not just to bring light
to the struggles of “women” as a
single category but to acknowledge
that different women face different
struggles. Some think this was
more successful than others; I’ve
been trying to listen to what others
have to say about it.

I’ve seen a lot of people

struggling with what they saw
as a focus on the celebration of
“womanhood.” Many felt that
some of the popular signs featuring
images, cartoons or language
around female reproductive organs
or primary sex characteristics —
not to mention the pink hats — were
alienating to the trans women who
showed up to march. Much of the
coverage of the marches addressed
how centering this kind of imagery
and rhetoric catered exclusively to
cis women. For anyone who doesn’t
know, the definition of cisgender
(according to Merriam-Webster)
is: “relating to, or being a person
whose gender identity corresponds
with the sex the person had or was
identified as having at birth.”

Transgender people face issues

that cisgender people do not.
Cisgender people don’t have to
worry they won’t be allowed to
use the bathroom they feel most
comfortable using, or have people
argue with them about what their
“real” name is or face insistent
questioning of what’s under their
clothes or worry about being
misgendered or scroll through a
category on Netflix and not see any
movies that represent them and
their experiences. These are just a
few I know, but the list goes on and
on — and there are plenty of lists
and personal narratives out there
written by transgender people who
have faced discrimination based on
their gender identity firsthand.

From what I could see, there

were two conflations in both the
rhetoric around the march and the
criticism of it afterwards that were
getting in the way of productive
conversations. The first is a
distinction which has only recently
trickled into common knowledge,
and that many people haven’t
come across in an academic setting
because we don’t teach anything
about it until college (at least in
my experience): the conflation of
sex and gender. A quick, simplistic
crash course for those who haven’t

encountered this idea: Sex is what
one is assigned at birth based on
genitalia and reproductive organs,
either male and female. Gender is
the social construct built around
sex: boy and girl, man and woman.
The concept that gender is a social
construct — that there is nothing
inherent to “womanhood” or
“manhood” can be flooring the
first time one learns about it, and
still hasn’t quite reached public
acceptance.

The second conflation I saw

was of the privilege of cisgender
women and having a female body.
I think that cisgender privilege
is often just named in a list with
other privileges, and not actually
examined enough on its own.
I think that’s led to some not
understanding that the privilege
ciswomen have is not actually
related to inhabiting a female body;
in this case, having female genitalia

and female primary and secondary
sex characteristics has never been
a privileged identity. They have
always been abused and harshly
regulated, from the history of
sterilization of indigenous women
and “corrective” rape of queer
women, to the disbelief of the
female orgasm and the marketing
of douching for “freshness” or
“cleanliness,” to the inaccessibility
and harsh restriction of birth
control, to the ancient societal
importance placed on virginity tied
to hymens and the perpetuation of
rape culture. The list goes on and
on.

In a lot of spaces, talking about

the pain and struggle that comes
along with owning a uterus or
vagina is still taboo — for example,
former Rep. Lisa Brown (D – West
Bloomfield) was barred from
speaking after she used the word
“vagina” in a discussion about
abortion. That was in 2012. A
few days ago, Trump reinstated
the “global gag rule,” making
accurate and informed family
planning aid (specifically abortion)
to
other
countries
incredibly

difficult. There were examples of
internalized misogyny even at the
women’s march; I saw one sign at
the Ann Arbor march that read: “I

may have one, but I’m no pussy.” I
don’t even know where to begin
with it.

A lot of these issues don’t occur

to those who don’t struggle with
them on a daily basis. When I was
in high school, I was involved in my
school’s “midnight runs,” Friday
nights spent driving all over New
York City to give food, clothes and
toiletries to homeless people on
the streets. We collected donations
from
students
beforehand
—

toothpaste, deodorant, soap and
shampoo. The one thing that
most of the homeless women
asked for first was tampons and
pads, which we never had. It just
wasn’t something people thought
to donate — which was especially
interesting considering it was an
all-girls school. New York only
stopped taxing menstrual products
last year.

Signs at the women’s marches

that had pictures of uteruses or
vaginas weren’t inherently trans
exclusive. They were in direct
response to not only several of you-
know-who’s comments about and
lack of respect towards women,
most infamously, his “grab them by
the p——y” comment.

There were signs at the march

that were trans exclusionary —
“the future is female,” sign, or “no
uterus, no opinion,” — but they
were more than that, for anything
that reifies the conflation between
sex and gender is dangerous and
counterproductive. These signs
should not be seen as celebrating
these symbols as inherent to
womanhood, but rather a way to
reclaim the space and time needed
to fix the issues faced by those
who have them. I don’t think the
solution would’ve been to not
have those signs; these things
can’t be taken out of the national
conversation. Rather, there should
have been more signs about the
issues that transgender people,
both transgender men and women,
face. The conversation needs to be
broadened and amplified, and the
conversation
around
cisgender

privilege more focused so as to
eliminate the confusion.

There is nothing inherent to

“womanhood.” The term itself
is dubious. Sometimes it seems
like the only thing that all women
have in common is some level
of oppression, no matter how
complicated or tiered. I guess
that’s part of the reason, beyond its
inherent conflation, that I cringe
a little inside whenever I see signs
saying “the future is female.” I can’t
help but think to myself, based on
how “female” is treated still — God,
I hope not.

GENDER & MEDIA COLUMN

Questions raised by signs

SOPHIA

KAUFMAN

ALBUM REVIEW