Should I purchase Big Sean's album?

 
In today's society, music fans have a choice of doing the honest thing and buying music or resorting to the more deviant route of illegally downloading. I try to make it a habit of purchasing my favorite artists’ recent work and I consider Big Sean to be one of my favorite commercial rappers of the moment. Despite my motivation, is his debut album, Finally Famous: The Album, worth buying in the store?

Obvious by the superfluous number of times it’s played on the radio, the album's lead single "My Last" is doing exceptionally well on the radio; it was the fourth most-played song on nationwide radio market during the week of June 27^th through July 3. Sean and Chris Brown had the opportunity to perform the song at the 2011 BET Awards. "Marvin Gaye and Chardonnay" featuring label head Kanye West and Roscoe Dash is set to be the second single. I enjoy both tracks and wouldn’t mind hearing "Chardonnay" on the radio a few more times.

Critics criticize Big Sean's affinity to change his style to seemingly accommodate the guest feature on the song as a lack of identity. Music critic Jesal 'Jay Soul' Padania of Rap Reviews wrote, "there is no consistent narrative voice, as Big Sean modifies his own voice to accommodate his guest, or adapts to the original tone of the song's influencing artist.” I disagree because what he may consider lack of identity, I call diversity. The subject matter and delivery in "Don't Wait for Me" are different than those of "Dance (A$$)".

The production from No I.D, The Neptunes and others give Sean a great platform exhibit his talents.

My other concern is the brevity of the album. There are only twelve songs on the basic copy, 16 on the deluxe edition. Even if the disk is $9.99 in stores, I’m still wary about whether or not I will be getting my money’s worth.

Nonetheless, I am feeling propelled to do my part as a fan. Physical album sales are declining while digital sales are increasing. I’d rather be part of the solution than the problem. Plus, it’s nothing like having an ink-covered plastic disk and decorative case in your hand.