In Defense of Young Jeezy

On occasion I've mentioned that I'm a fan of the work of one Mr. Young Jeezy, and every time I do I inevitably get letters from readers asking me if I'm serious. How, they wonder, could you possibly be a serious hip-hop fan and also called "The Recession" one of your favorite albums? Well, especially with Jeezy in the crosshairs following his recent comments in Vibe, I figured there was no better time than to really explain my relationship with The Snowman.

First, the music. Let's start with the obvious; Jeezy is not a particularly good emcee - or it'd be more accurate to say that he's not a particularly good lyricist, which is exactly why when I'm in the mood to turn my brain off and turn the speakers up there's no one better. His flows are about 50 percent his gravelly voice, 40 percent his personna and 10 percent his lyrics, and that's ok. Think about him like the Arnold Schwarzenegger of rap, and an album like "The Recession" as "Terminator". Is "Terminator" a great movie because Arnold's a great actor? Of course not. Like Jeezy, Arnold does one thing well - looking like a ripped killing machine - but he does that one thing well enough to still make his work entertaining.

Let's try another analogy. Take Doritos. On a Saturday afternoon when I'm watching college football I've been known to grab a beer and a bag of Doritos and go to town. Does that mean Doritos deserves some sort of culinary award? No. If you eat too much of them will you get sick and obese? Absolutely. But there's nothing wrong with knocking back a bag when the occasion calls for some cheesy, fattening goodness. That's what Jeezy's music is like.



See? There was absolutely nothing redeeming about that track, and that's why I like it.

And given the furor that's erupted over the last 24 hours I can't ignore Jeezy's recent, so-called "I'm better than Biggie" quote in an interview with Vibe. It goes without saying that Jeezy's not even in the same neighborhood as Biggie and Pac, and you'd have every right to be furious if that's what he said, but like most of what passes for reporting in the fast and furious internet age, that quote was taken out of context. Here's the full version.

“…By making peace publicly, Jeezy broke ranks. Together with Drama and Gucci, he pumped the brakes on a car speeding out of control and veered left. What happens next is anyone’s guess, but after everything he’s seen, Jeezy knows it has to be a better road than the one he was on.

“Pac and Big gone, cuz,” he says, looking up. “They no more. Only thing you can hear is they voice, my nigga, and you know what they voice telling me? You gotta keep it moving, man. Fuck that dumb shit, cuz. We wanna be where you at. I’m four albums in. How many albums Big have, two? He ain’t make it that far. So I’m already ahead of the game.”

But Jeezy knows it’s not that simple. He gets phone calls, friends in the streets and in the pen, telling him he should have never backed down. “But they don’t understand,” he says, “’cause they just got that mentality, kill or be killed. And that’s my mentality. But at the same time, I still want to be here for my child…”

Well, well, doesn't that change things. In context he's clearly not saying that he's better than Biggie, he's saying that he learned from Biggie and Pac's murder that beef gets serious quickly, and the fact that he's released more albums than Christopher Wallace is proof that he's managed to avoid the kind of beef that ended his legendary career prematurely

I'm sure I'll catch some heat for this one, but I'm not going to apologize or qualify. There's nothing hypocritical about having both Jeezy and Aesop Rock in your iPod. Different situations and different moods call for different music, and sometimes a little "Thug Motivation" in my speakers is exactly what I need. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.