With his platinum-selling debut album, Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101, Atlanta- based rapper Young Jeezy (Jay Jenkins) showed the world that there was still a place for an artist who filled albums with metaphors, ad-libs, and numerous odes to guns, drugs, cars, money, and women. The success of Young Jeezy’s debut album lead many to question whether he would be a one-trick pony or would he be able to continue his success with his second album. The Inspiration: Thug Motivation 102 is in many ways an apt title. Firstly, the album does not differentiate from Let’s Get It when it comes to subject matter. The same ad-libs, metaphors, and odes to life in the trap are still very much prevalent. While the subject matter of the The Inspiration is similar to the debut album, Young Jeezy does have the perspective of having tasted success, and the album serves as a message to all of his doubters within the industry. That message is that Young Jeezy is here to stay in the rap game. Jeezy echoes these sentiments in the opening track “Hypnotize”, where he lets his critics know that he is ahead of the game and always a step above his competitors.

The second track on the album “Still On It”, echoes these feelings even further as Jeezy proclaims that not only is he still keeping it street for his fans, but that his newfound success has given him the ability to afford the finer things in life. “U Know It” is another track where Jeezy explores the life he has to live as a famous rap star. An introduction from producer Shawty Redd, who handles a significant portion of the production work on the album reaffirms to Young Jeezy that he needs to keep focused and ignore the haters. Jeezy once again explores his patented formula of talking about how many drugs he’s sold during his time in the streets, how much money he has, and how he’s going to continue to stay on top. Just as one gets the feeling that he will not deliver anything that expands upon his patented formula, Jeezy shocks us all with the track “Dreamin’ (feat Keyisha Cole). Cole supplies the hook while production team The Runners provides a melodic and soothing beat that harkens back to times past. Jeezy shines on this track particularly because he deviates from his formula of guns, drugs, and money to show you a rarely display of sincerity and complexity. One can feel the emotion and sense of guilt when the boastful drug dealer speaks of his feelings of pain and contradiction at seeing his mother addicted to crack cocaine. “Dreamin,” is unquestionably a high point in the album, showing that there is a deeper side to mainstream southern rap.

Outside this rare display of sincerity, Jeezy sticks to his bread and butter of sterling club tracks. The album’s first single, “I Luv It”, is not a standout but serves its purpose as a single for Top 40 radio. Another track of this ilk where the Snowman excels is “3 A.M.” The Timbaland produced track is a perfect coupling as Jeezy’s flow is outstanding over the synth and bass driven beat. “Go Getta,” featuring superstar hit-maker R. Kelly, is a surefire single that was made for the club. The only knock against the track is that Jeezy chose only to have R. Kelly provide the hook and opted to have The Runners handle the production. They do a fine job with the track and this song will probably be a huge hit.

While for some, Young Jeezy is simply another example of the monotony and lack of originality plaguing rap, there is no doubt something special in his charisma and his ability to grab your attention with his flow. While his lyrical content certainly won’t get him confused with the likes of Kool G. Rap or even Kanye West, Jeezy’s unique delivery and subject matter have made him just as popular as any rapper out right now. With all of the talk of the south contributing the most to the ‘death’ of hip hop, Young Jeezy shows that the south isn’t so much killing hip-hop in that it is simply providing another perspective of life in urban America.

by Lamar Tidwell

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