The Recession

A turning point in Young Jeezy's creative work

Atlanta and all the Southern school rappers have been proud of one of their representatives Young Jeezy famous for his husky voice for eight years already with his creative work since the release of his major label debut Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101 being especially remarkable. The rapper's sophomore effort has proved to be a classic volume II, the first record's continuation with the same name only with number 102 on which he has once again said a reluctant 'no' to drugs and told some more stories of his street life. Yet no matter how the fans were hoping to get a Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 103, nor how those who had had enough were afraid of it the thing did not happen. Young Jeezy's third creation got called The Recession and became a turning point in his creative work. Today the themes of drugs and repenting of one's past mistakes are left behind and what gets to the front (who could think?) is politics. The Recession is probably the most topical rap album you have ever heard in your life for listening to it one can learn easily and in a simple form what is now going on in the USA and what frank in his statements Young Jeezy thinks of it.

Some hits and a bit of filler on The Recession

It looks like the new theme has absorbed Young Jeezy for he has written as many as eighteen tracks that have comprised a great record The Recession. Of course this time too the rapper got help form producers among which there are such stars as Drumma Boy, Kanye West, DJ Toomp, Shawty Redd and Don Cannon. Opening with the traditional intro and title track at the same time, The Recession offers several songs that are sure to become hits and some fillers that nonetheless add some flavor to the general picture. A number of tracks tell of various world problems and are all closely connected to the political situation on the United States but there are also classic hip hop compositions on the album of having a good time, drug traffic and so on. The title of Crazy World speaks for itself depicting the state of affairs in America today whereas Amazin' is a great and quite simple rap composition about different ways to have fun. A tough number Who Dat about the criminal world contrasts with melodious Don't You Know with unusual space audio effects. One of the best tracks on the album Word Play pleases with a soulful performance and a nice beat provided by J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League. Song Put On, a collaboration with Kanye West is refined with the latter’s electronic vocals and the record's final track My President featuring Nas proves to be one of the highlights and is devoted to Barack Obama whom Young Jeezy obviously sympathizes with and therefore has decided to support him in the maximum effective way.

The game was worth the candles

Two independent albums and three for today on a major label have brought Young Jeezy fame of an artist with his own opinion on every matter who believes that real rap should be about real life no matter ho severe it may be. Every new record attracts more and more fans to him and their number will certainly increase with The Recession. Besides the fact that Young Jeezy has decided to refuse the formula he has been sticking to on the two previous works and taken a new direction definitely deserves praise for there has been a certain risk behind this decision. Nevertheless it is enough to listen once to The Recession to understand that the game has been worth the candle and that the rapper's creative search is continuing in the right way. At his age of thirty he offers quite sensible thoughts on politics yet realizing that not everyone can share his views. Still keeping silent has never been his strategy, Young Jeezy is always direct and does not mince words. The Recession has resulted to be interesting, vivid and sometimes rather aggressive, just like any hip hop album is supposed to be, and one can have no doubt that this is far from the rapper's last word to say.