With the intro “The Recession” from the album of the same name you are given the impression that Young Jeezy might have turned a corner and left the corner behind with his thug curriculum. Surprise, surprise, you would be wrong. The song following the intro is “Welcome Back”. You learn that boiling coke is responsible for Young Jeezy the rapper as much as Ray J’s directing skills were responsible for the success of Kim Kardashian (which is very much so). “Welcome Back” lets you know that you can take the hustler out of the kitchen but you can’t take the kitchen out of the hustler. You also learn that you can’t take blow out of Young Jeezy’s rhyme book. Excuse me, I mean his mind. Because according to Jeezy he is yet another that chooses to follow in the footsteps of Jay-Z and avoid exploding pens by writing his lyrics in his head.
To give him credit he does manage to make his album title somewhat relevant on “Crazy World”. He talks about people constructing condo’s in the midst of economic instability and points out that those convicted of trafficking narcotics can possibly face more jail time than a murderer. That and a mention of George Bush only manages to broaden the rappers subject matter slightly. It equates to a stone being placed on a seesaw in an attempt to balance the cocaine elephant on the other side. It doesn’t exactly even out.
The record has moments that make you think you might be listening to an album with an underlying theme. A song like “Circulate” touches on financial strife with a sample but not much else. Young Jeezy also explains why he continues to compose his rhymes with drug mentions on “Word Play”. Kinda. When the hook drops in you find the snowman accepting that the fans want more lyrical substance from him, but to this he responds that he is about “bird play”. This means mainly that should you expect enlightenment, political opinion and positivity from him you are listening to the wrong artist. The closest you will get to political messages are sentiments that equate to “fuck the 43rd president of the United States”.
Jeezy does do the cocaine distributor shtick as well as anyone considering his current financial situation. Charisma and dope (pun intended) punchlines aside, Young Jeezy manages to get out-shined by Kanye West, vocoder and all, on his first single “Put On”. But he does out rap Nas on his closing track “My President”, so he would probably take that trade off.
The unmistakeable voice of the Atlanta rapper is surrounded by production that would fit perfectly on both of his prior albums. Most of his lyrics would fit as well, so depending on your opinion of Jeezy it can be a good or bad thing. Personally I can’t wait for the synth heavy, southern style beat train to leave the station, on a track that leads to the ocean. But to each his own. Some will never get tired of his drawn out “yeah” ad-libs and others probably hope that global warming is real so the snowman can melt. One thing I do know is that Arm & Hammer can ease off on the advertising this quarter, Jeezy’s back.
