Young Jeezy: Awe Inspiring

By: Will “Deshair” Foskey

With his highly anticipated sophomore album, “The Inspiration” hitting shelves on December 12^th and his lead single “I Luv It currently at #28 on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop charts, Def Jam recording artist Young Jeezy is the face of the Super December releases and for good reason.

Jeezy is the one artist that Mr. Carter receives the sharpest reflection of his own beginnings as a hustler turned emcee. And with a successful “Blueprint” already laid down by the CEO of Hip-Hop, as long as Jeezy walks the line, he’ll be looking at a future in Hip-Hop which pushes far and beyond his wildest thug dreams.

So what have you learned since the release of your first album up until this moment in time?

Young Jeezy: I’ve learned that everything changes. A lot of people are happy for you, but they aren’t happy with you. Life is just different. People might think that you’re trippin’, but you just got things to do – you’re not the same ole’ dude anymore. But it’s pretty much the same.

Talk about the Thug Motivation book. When will you be releasing it?

Young Jeezy: It’s probably going to come out between this upcoming album and the next album. I thought that I was ready to finish it after my first album, but I’ve learned so much more about life. I’m looking at life from different perspectives now, instead of just one perspective.

What do you feel will be different about the new album?

Young Jeezy: It’s more personal. You have to understand that when I was working on my first album I was going through a lot of things, so I only saw things in one way, period. Now I have different perspectives to draw on. So I went in and made great music. I gave it who I am. There’s definitely a lot of growth on this album. It’s still grimy and it’s still Jeezy. Everybody who’s heard it says that it’s a better album than the first. I have some of the same producers from the first album. The only difference is that I went into the studio with Scott Storch and Timbaland because I wanted to try something different.

How about the clothing line?

Young Jeezy: My clothing line will be in stores on December 1^st. I had to change the name to 8732 because the Government was trippin’ over the original name of USGA.

Fabolous made a statement that people thought he was taking a risk putting you on a record with him when you were a relative unknown. What do you feel was one of the biggest risks you’ve taken?

Young Jeezy: I think that the biggest risk I’ve taken was being me, you understand me. Just coming out with the music that I’ve come out with. I just took what I had and worked with that. A lot of cats can’t do that. For me, it wasn’t about selling a lot of records, it was about being heard. I’m pacing myself. I’m just cool, I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.

From an artist perspective, is there such thing as growing too much?

Young Jeezy: Yes. If you take The Streets is Watching, Trap or Die, Can’t Ban the Snowman to Thug Motivation, I went into my mix-tapes like they were albums. So to the average person, they might know me from one album, but the streets know me from all of that. So I had to just try to pace myself with my next album because I didn’t want to come out too, “me.” Because I could have just went for it. It was nothing; I was already there. Leaving off with “Soul Survivor” I could have pretty much done what I wanted to do. I still wanted to remain Jeezy because sometimes through growth, you leave your fans behind. Everybody doesn’t change as fast as you change… no two days are the same. So I didn’t want to go in and do all of these big records and nobody understood them. I want for the people who love me and love my music to grow with me, instead of me going towards an audience that doesn’t know me and I don’t know them.