American rapper Young Jeezy, hailing from Atlanta Georgia, originally had the ambition only to remain a businessman in the music industry and not as a rapper. Years before making his first Def Jam album (Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101, released in July 2005), he set up Corporate Thugz Entertainment, which stood for Cash Money releases. From there, he transformed himself into a label boss and an artist in his own right. From then on he started releasing albums and mixtapes.
Young Jeezy is a member of the hip-hop quartet Boyz N Da Hood. As its member, he has signed to Bad Boy Records and to Def Jam as a solo artist. He is sometimes called by his nickname, "Snowman" because he had a bleak past of a drug dealer. (Snow a slang word for cocaine).
Come Shop wit' Me, is Jeezy’s independently distributed debut of 2003. More than 50,000 copies were reportedly sold. His band’s self-titled debut album, Boyz N Da Hood, came out on June 21, 2005. The album topped at #5 on the Billboard 200 chart. His debut solo album, Let's Get it: Thug Motivation 101, came #2 and sold around 172,000 copies in its initial week.
Jeezy’s underground testimonials like “Air Forces” and “Chuuch”, his street swagger and genuine style made believers even out of some big names in the pop scene like Fabolous and P. Diddy. Jeezy had lost many invaluable things in life-- family, friends and time. (he has lost some time in prison, the fact that he doesn’t want to give publicity). This could be the reason why he showed a sense of urgency about his music.
So, soon he made a nosedive into the mixtape circuit. Collaborating with Shawty Red for a long time, he recorded some exclusive tracks. About 100,000 mixtapes and more than 200,000 Trap Or Die DVDs were sold in a little more than a year. This was enough to exhilarate Def Jam, which decided to sign with the youngster. In 2005, along with rappers Jay-Z and Fat Joe, Young Jeezy recorded a remix of "Go Crazy". The song has been creating waves across the US, elevating Young Jeezy's hip-hop status. Recording of a mixtape with Harlem rapper Juelz Santana is the next project in the pipeline.
What does Jeezy have to say about his appeal? “Basically, I’m a real nigga so I can relate more to a lot of cats,” He further says, “I don’t just do music for the clubs, I do music for the struggle. I do music for everyday niggas, the kids who ain’t got no sense of direction. I’m trying to restore some of the morals back into the game, as far as the street.” In songs like the revealing “Let Me Talk To ‘Em”, we can see Jeezy apologizing for wrongs he has done in life. We can also sense in his songs an attempt made to walk the new generation through the right path in life, and steer them clear of dark traps ahead. However, it is the underprivileged lot who gets the most out of Jeezy’s street scriptures.
What makes Young Jeezy’s music out-of-the-ordinary is his ability to paint a story in different colors, each time he says it. He’s truly a musician of digital age. He doesn’t want to come armed with 16 bars to create an image in your mind. When he belts a verse, everyone feels it and sees it instantly!
