Rapper Jeezy, formerly known as Young Jezzy, has explained how he felt he was close to death when he dropped his Thug Motivation album.
With street-approved works like Trap or Die and Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101, Jeezy rose to stardom in the middle of the 2000s, yet there was a darkness hidden underneath his success that drove his ambition to succeed.
In an interview with Yahoo! News on Wednesday (July 26), the Atlanta rap mogul discussed his rocky transition from a drug dealer to a full-time rapper as he worked to promote his upcoming book Adversity for Sale: Ya Gotta Believe, which will be released on August 8.
The Snowman’s successful dope boy enterprise had brought him fame and wealth, but it had also given rise to an uncontrollable paranoia, which prevented him from pursuing his rap goals when he switched from the streets to the studio.
“I just knew that there wasn’t no other way if I didn’t figure it out,” he said. “I was going to end up in prison or probably dead like the rest of my friends.
“A lot of my music … was me just wanting to be heard. I was writing my music as if I wasn’t gonna be there anymore. So I was like, ‘This better be the best I ever said.’ And so that’s what Trap or Die and Thug Motivation was, because I was preparing myself for the worst.”
He added: “And when it popped, I understood, and now I was like, ‘OK, I gotta sustain this.’ So I just carried that same energy into all my next projects.”
Jeezy’s real name is Jay Wayne Jenkins. He is an American rapper. Signing to Def Jam Recordings in 2004, his major label debut, Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101, was released the following year and debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, selling 172,000 copies in its first week and receiving platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Jeezy is credited, along with fellow Georgia-based rappers T.I. and Gucci Mane, for helping to pioneer and popularize trap music for a mainstream audience.
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