Big Sean’s been learning the ropes of fatherhood since welcoming his son Noah with Jhené Aiko in November 2022.
The Detroit rapper opened up on On Purpose with Jay Shetty about how raising a kid shows you parts of yourself you never knew existed.
“It’s like time traveling,” Sean shared. “People always try and figure out how to preserve themselves. There’s the expression, ‘Oh, I’m living through my kids.”
He added, “I think that your blood, your lineage…you really do time travel.”
Sean reflected on looking like his dad’s father, who he never got to meet.
“I never even met him,” he explained. “But he’s a part of me too, and I think that’s also why it’s important to work on yourself and to heal certain traumatic experiences because with all this information we pass on, you also pass on the good and the bad. … It is really important to work on yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually because you pass on all of that.”
When Shetty asked what the Better Me Than You artist hopes not to pass down to his son, Sean said, “Worry.”
“I used to…create all of these scenarios in my head, and I think that’s like a double-edged sword—when you have an imagination. You’re creative, you create, right? So, you can create good, you could create bad.”
Sean admitted his biggest fear was losing everything and having to move back to Detroit.
“I shouldn’t be scared to lose any of this stuff because this stuff is conditional and it’s like, I’m gonna be good wherever I’m at,” he reflected.
“You imprint that in a young child by building up his confidence—and that’s one of the things I love about my boy. It’s like, he’s so confident. … That’s something that I want to keep feeding him.”
“One of the things I want to pass on to him is [to] be confident in who you are because you have what it takes. You can already tell he has a great heart. He has a great spirit. He loves…trying to make people laugh. … [I] just wanna keep [watering] that confidence in him.”
Catch the full podcast episode below.
