You had a little problem with that on the radio with Monie Love in Philly. Young Jeezy: It really wasn’t no problem, man. She was just disrespectful, and I’m a man first. I don’t give a fuck about all that rap shit. A lot of people don’t know that it was a lot said off-air that really sparked that. She kept saying things like, “The South killed Hip Hop and it is dead.” And I just didn’t agree with that. I ain’t no fucking punk, man. Nobody finna fucking talk to me that way, on or off radio. I said what I felt. I ain’t have no personal problems with Nas. I said I fuckin’ disagree, shit. I’m a grown ass man, how the fuck I can’t tell you I disagree with something? I ain’t gotta see nothing nobody’s way. That’s why I’m standing right here right now, cause I did what I had to do. Hip Hop, to me, is Big and Tupac, UGK, 8Ball, MJG, niggas like that. That’s Hip Hop to me. It might not be Hip Hop to the next man, but that’s Hip Hop to me. You’ve said in the past that you’re not a rapper. Do you still feel that way? Young Jeezy: I’m gonna be real, man, it’s like any hustle. If you stay on a hustle long enough, and you focus hard enough on that shit and really try to do the best you can, then you gon’ get a lot of money. It’s the same thing with music. I love the studio. I really be in there, and a lot of niggas don’t know what type of work I put in, but I love what the fuck I do. And I’m always in that muthafucka, so eventually I’m gotta get better. It’s called progress. And if the people accept it, then I’m doing it right.
a lot of pressure off my shoulder, because it’s always been on me. Now with this Corporate Thuggin’ project I get to introduce the world to my niggas, Slick Pulla and BloodRaw. With so much solo success, what made you decide to work with the group on the Corporate Thuggin’ project? Young Jeezy: This is real family shit over here. This USDA shit is real. CTE is us, we all we got and 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. Corporate Thuggin’ baby. The object of the game is to get paper and that’s what the fuck we gon’ do, and keep it street. And we gon’ win, we gon’ be the only niggas that keep it street and don’t crossover or do no silly shit. We just gon’ be the niggas that stay solid and do what we do. We work together as a group because those are my niggas. They been on the road with me, they been through gangsta shit with me; shootouts or whatever, and I vouch for them niggas. They really do what they say they’ve done. We all really are street niggas, and they hungry just as I am; they hustle. That nigga [Blood]Raw stays on the road, doing shows constantly. Slick [Pulla] is on the road, too and niggas constantly doing mixtapes, so when we get together it’s like a family reunion because niggas be so happy to see each other.
What do Slick Pulla and BloodRaw bring to the table that Young Jeezy doesn’t? Young Jeezy: I think ‘Raw appeals to every nigga in the penitentiary, every nigga in the Fed, State, whatever. And he’s not from Georgia, he’s from Florida, but we accept him like one of our own. When gangsta shit went down, we stood up for the nigga like family does. This ain’t no bullshit, and a lot of niggas don’t know that Slick got locked up twice, for months at a time between this, and both those niggas were in and out of jail. It was hard to get the project done, and I was out on the road without my niggas, so it was different. We all sat around and prayed when ‘Raw I know a lot of your album success was in Florida for his court date. The has resulted from your mixtape whole family prayed because this success. What are your thoughts on nigga was facing a life sentence, the current mixtape mayhem and my nigga. It was either life or he DJ Drama? was going home. And when his Young Jeezy: The streets are riding manager, Wakeley called me and with Drama. I don’t give a fuck, said this nigga is fuckin’ free, my nigga. Tell Drama we got loyal niggas damn near was crying in money; we good. We ain’t about to that muthafucka, dawg. Niggas let that nigga go nowhere. I actually lost they mind. It was the biggest think it’s kind of a good thing, beshit ever. And that nigga Slick, he’s y ez - YOUNG je cause he’s gonna come out of it cool, a livewire. That nigga is fucking and it shows how big this shit really crazy. Slick is hotheaded like a muthafucka, he is off is. We live it, so we don’t really know. I didn’t unthe chain and he be in the streets wildin’. I be trying to calm this nigga down derstand how big my Trap or Die mixtape was until I was in Toronto, Canada, and show him another side of life. He be out shootin’ at niggas, getting shot and a nigga was rapping this shit to me and everybody was playing it. I didn’t and all types of shit. It’s a lot of shit that we go through that people don’t understand how big this shit was until I was doing album release parties for know about, but God is good. my mixtapes and 5,000 or 6,000 people showed up. Mixtapes are the streets, so we need this shit. It can’t be the streets without mixtapes. And if they try All three of you are very different. How would you describe each style? to stop it, it’s only gonna make it bigger. It’s like weed, homie. You can’t slow Young Jeezy: The biggest thing that I think ‘Raw brings is pain. You can hear that down. Shouts out to any real DJ out there that plays real street music, his pain in his words. And the biggest thing about Slick is that he’s that because it takes a real nigga to break a real nigga. Niggas like Drama are the young, fly muthafucka who don’t give a fuck about nothing. The ladies love niggas who make niggas like me. I toured for two years off [my mixtapes] that muthafucka. I call him the wavy haired Cuban. And then Jeezy definitely Streets Is Watching and Trap or Die. Two years! I did a show every night, some brings that hustle to the group, you know? I’m gonna talk that money shit till nights two or three shows, hustlin’ off a mixtape. I can look you in your eyes you tired of hearing it, nigga. I’m gon’ talk that money shit and if you gotta and tell you that if I wouldn’t have done those mixtapes, I wouldn’t be where problem with it, don’t fuck with us. I am right now. And that’s why I’m able to do the type of records I do can do. Go back and check my catalogue, if you wanna know if a nigga is real or not, How do you think Slick and Blood will be able to come out of your shadow? go check his first couple of mixtapes. If he wasn’t talking how he’s talking Young Jeezy: I just hope that the streets embrace them, just as they’ve now, then that ain’t that nigga. You can go back and check any mixtapes I done me. It feels good to be able to do something you love to do and help did: Streets Is Watching, Trap or Die, Can’t Ban the Snowman, all the way to some real niggas out in the process. It ain’t gon’ stop with Blood and Slick. I Am The Street Dream. Those shits are like albums. It’s niggas’ albums that I’m gonna help some other niggas and we gon’ make this shit big. This is a don’t sound as good as those, so I could never cross over, baby. movement. It ain’t nothing like taking a nigga you fuck with, who you been in the streets with and in the trenches with, to sit on the 106th & Park sofa when You seem to have crafted an image that’s beyond just rap at this point. you know that this is this nigga’s dream. This is all he ever wanted to do, Young Jeezy: Robin Hood, baby, that’s me. You see it on the jacket. I’m Robin and you made that happen for him. To me, that shit is priceless. That’s being Hood. I’m just one of those types of niggas, man. I’ve been there, I’ve done it gangsta. That’s gangsta right there. Just watch our moves, you’ll see. all and I seen it all. Just cause my life is moving at a fast pace doesn’t mean that I’m not aware that other people need help sometimes to get to where Slick Pulla and BloodRaw they’re trying to go. Anything that I can do, I’m gonna try to do to help. I got a good heart, so anything that I can do for the kids or the community, I’m If you had to define Corporate Thuggin’, what would the definition be? the first to bat. I’m so happy to be here, and I’m at that point where I know Slick Pulla: Corporate Thuggin’, it’s like a way of life. That’s what you do when I’ve done my job. So I can do me now, relax and have fun and do the things you hit the streets and you handle yo’ business, that’s corporate thuggin’. a nigga of my status is supposed to do. That’s why I feel so good about this No matter what you’re doing, but its not just being in the streets, you can be shit. I feel good, baby! But I ain’t gon’ lie, on my next album, I’m going back corporate thuggin’ behind a desk. to the club. I’m partying, because I gotta enjoy life, man. I’ve been so hard on BloodRaw: It’s just us. We came from the streets and we’ve just been intromyself since the beginning and now, I feel like I can step back a little. There’s duced to a corporate world, but we still being us, we ain’t gon’ change. We
The Inspiration had less promotion from Def Jam than Thug Motivation, but it still sold more units. Why’s that? Young Jeezy: It’s different because when you become profitable, things change. It’s politics involved. When you just a street nigga doing this shit and you come straight out the hood like, “Fuck it, here I am,” that’s how it is. But when you start making money, it’s different. It ain’t a lot that people can do for you no more, because we really went in the streets and put that shit out there and promoted and really was doing the legwork. You can’t sit back and depend on nobody but yourself.
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72 // OZONE MAG