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(l to r) Slick Pulla, Young Jeezy, & BloodRaw
a life sentence. It was either life or he was going home,” explains a nowexhaled Jeezy. “During the same time, Slick [Pulla] got shot and a lot of shit like that was going on.” Then, in April, 2006, the USDA story got a lot better, “On April 6, 2006, I was acquitted, and by the blessing of God I’m here,” proudly proclaims BloodRaw. “There was a lot of niggas who held they nuts and counted me out, they say niggas was giving each other high-fives at the club, but this is destiny, homie. Can’t nobody stop this.” It certainly appears destiny is on their side. Even with all odds stacked against them, the Corporate Thugz are in harmony. Jeezy, Slick, and Raw are now more focused than ever and all the tribulations have left the music unchanged. “It’s real street music, we been sticking to the same formula. It was the same thing coming in and it’s gonna be the same formula coming out,” affirms Slick. “It’s three great minds thinking alike for one common cause, and that’s to put the real back into this street movement, man. We gon’ give the people what they want.” Jeezy has been giving the people what they want for a while now, but even he seems youthfully excited about the USDA project. “It’s just time for USDA. Niggas been hearing me scream that shit every since I been doing my thing, so now its time to hear ‘em,” says Jeezy. “I’m just excited to see the project come together and the album is hard is fuck. This shit is hard; it’s what the streets need.”
Young Jeezy So the new project is called Corporate Thuggin’. Tell me a little about it? Young Jeezy: Ah, man, I’m excited about it. I finally get a chance to show the hood my niggas and these niggas really deserve it. [Blood]Raw; he had a lot going on, man. He was facing a life sentence, and this is like the second or third time this done happened since we’ve been trying to work on the project and complete it. Also, during the same time, Slick got shot and a lot of shit like that was going on, but those are my niggas. A lot of niggas get on and forget about their homies, but them my niggas and they really can rap, so I’m just excited to see the project come together and the album is hard is fuck. This shit is hard; it’s what the streets need. This gon’ be the record of the summer, period, hands down. Over here at CTE, we make records. We don’t make just singles, we make albums, shit you can ride to and live to.
young jeezy slick Pulla Bloodraw project, Corporate Thuggin’, the colors on the calendar will collide, blending together to form a new hue: Gold. They wouldn’t mind platinum, either, but in the fairy tales, the chase is always for the gold. In USDA’s fable, however, the journey has been anything but a fairy tale ride. The road to completing the Corporate Thuggin’ album was once more like a nightmarish expedition, spiraling out of control. In January 2006, BloodRaw had been picked up by US Marshals and put on trial in his hometown of Panama City, Florida, where he faced a possible life sentence for Federal drug conspiracy charges. “The whole family prayed because this nigga was facing
Your Inspiration album just reached platinum status, so congratulations on that. I know you had high expectations. Are you satisfied thus far with your albums sales? Young Jeezy: Yeah, definitely, when you say a sophomore album, niggas normally fumble on that shit, and I really done me on that CD. I wanted to change it up a little bit, but at the same time I don’t wanna stay where I’m at. The shit is called progress. If you gon’ build a foundation you have to make progress. You’re not gonna stay on the first level of your house, you gotta step it up. A lot of niggas ain’t got the street credibility that I got or been through what I’ve been through, or can talk about the things I talk about. So I’m gonna be the best at it, let that be known, but at the end of the day, people grow with you. You get better and if you talk about real shit, they grow with you. But you still the same nigga. Ain’t nothing change but my boxers, homie, for real. Since you’ve achieved crossover success, do you feel you’ve crossed over? Young Jeezy: Nah, I just feel like they’ve accepted me. But it was just a matter of time. I make good music, I make records. A lot of niggas just be talking, homie. Like I could talk this shit all day to you homie, like I got years of this shit in me, but at the end of the day I could still make good music when I do that. Jeezy was never no tunnel-vision ass one-way nigga. You could listen to the Trap or Die mixtapes all the way to “Soul Survivor,” and it’s the same nigga. I’m just giving the story to you on a bigger plate. It’s for us, but it’s for the world too, because I want them to understand why we do certain things and why we act certain ways. It’s because we all trying to survive out here. We live to die and we die to live, homie. A lot of people don’t understand that because they really think that it’s music and entertainment and they don’t understand that what we’re saying on these records is really real, we really mean this shit, this shit is real. This is what we do, and it’s not no flamboyant shit. This is what we go through and this is the outcome - now you tell me what you think about us. It’s that type of shit, but never cross over, baby. I ain’t got my A.I. on, naw. I’m gon’ be Jeezy. Especially with this USDA shit, I’m bout to fuck niggas up, man. I’m gonna be the young, wild ass rich nigga that I am. I don’t give a fuck. I’m gon’ say what I wanna say, I do what I wanna do, anybody that got a problem with it, fuck it! Let’s get it. We are the streets, I ain’t gotta keep explaining this shit to nobody.
OZONE MAG // 71