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Young Jeezy Album Review: THE INSPIRATION

“I keep it gangsta and they LOVE, that s$$$...If you’re a gangsta you gonna love this s$$$....Ha HAAAA!!!...“ – Young Jeezy, “Keep it Gangsta”.

HAAAAAYYYYY!!!!! Jeezy aka The King of Ad-Libs is back!! Gotta be honest with ya folks. I thought Jeezy depended on them clever little hooks a bit too much to the point where I didn’t think he’d have enough substance to actually make a decent sophomore album. Even when his decent first single off his current 2nd album called THE INSPIRATION dropped I just wasn’t that motivated to rush to the store. So I admit I took my time before even copping the album despite the positive reactions from the streets. I mean when you think about it what exactly does Jeezy represent? He’s not exactly a lyrical terror and also isn’t like a Ludacris whose persona is non-threatening enough to crossover into all cultures. I mean Jeezy doesn’t exactly invite happy fun thoughts when you think of him. Thinking about his first album though, the thing that stood out the most was that deep reverberating bass interlocked with soft sounds of melodic doom. And those ad libs!!! But see that’s just it. Jeezy has brought back what the quality artists back in the day like Tribe Called Quest perfected. What he’s perfected is making an album that creates a “MOOD” throughout the entire album so that when you listen to it you feel like you’re drifting off to a far and away place created by the artist. Tribe did this perfectly on their first two hiphop classic albums called PEOPLE’S INSTINCTIVE TRAVELS AND THE PATHS OF RHYTHM and THE LOW END THEORY.

So I realize the genius of Jeezy is that on his albums he brings you into HIS world of realness where serenity is only a dream and a glock and a “brick” is the only reality. Even Jeezy’s attempts at making radio songs can only get so commercial cause he never strays too far way from his dark stylo. If only other artists thought this deep when making their albums or even just creating their image!! Think about it. Nothing’s more annoying than buying an album because of one single that fool’s you into thinking this is that artist’s style but finding you’ve bought nothing but an album full of “singles” trying to appeal to every human alive in which no continuity or consistency is created. Perhaps the best hiphop group on Earth to perfect their own style through their dark tracks and attitude is Mobb Deep. They are the kings hands down of bringing you into their world of hiphop (3-6 Mafia is a close 2nd). You know when you buy a Mobb Deep album that what you’re going to get are tales of hiphop horror set to nothing but hardcore menacing tracks. So once I picked up Jeezy’s second Def Jam offering I was wondering if he really had mastered his own sound. And I’m proud to say he has done exactly that!! Unlike other “flash in the pan”, cookie cutter carved type artists, Jeezy suffers NO SOPHOMORE SLUMP. Too bad jokes like that artist called The Game can’t claim the same. Game’s only claim to validity and apparently only topic is that he hangs out with Dr. Dre in Compton…Seriously…How can a grown man ride someone’s jock that hard???...In his 2nd album he mentions Dre no less than 3 billion times…But I digress…. Curiously though unlike Mobb Deep and Tribe Called Quest, Jeezy enlists the help of SEVERAL different producers like Shawty Redd, Cool and Dre, Timbaland, DJ Toomp, DJ Smurf, Justice League, The Runners, Drumma Boy, Anthony Dent, Don Cannon, and Key Pushas yet still amazingly maintains his same dark, surreal, somber “I will survive” mood throughout the album. Let’s fall deeper into the newest dark sounds of Jeezy…

Showing he’s a visionary and a serious artist Jeezy takes care that his album starts off with the same tone his last one ended with. So fittingly Shawty Redd dominates 3 out of the first 4 tracks. Brilliant! As a ni$$a like me was instantly drawn back in to Jeezy’s world and was left eagerly anticipating what Tracks 5 – 16 had in store for me. “Hypnotize”, “U Know What It Is”, and “J.E.E.Z.Y” really take you back to the first half of Jeezy’s first album and makes you remember why you became addicted to Jeezy’s stylo in the first place. Personally “J.E.E.Z.Y.” is the Shawty Redd track that does it for me the most out of the three. You listen to that track and the vivid picture he paints about a night in hood in the first few bars leaves you saying DAAAYUUUMMM!! - “The Red Dog’s trippin and these ni$$az still snitching, The old lady across the street’s still bit$$ing. It’s 3 AM in the morning..Take yo old a$$ to sleep!...It’s the 3rd time she done called the police this week..the folks just left so I’m on my grind!!...yeaahhh!!!...”. As in the first album the first 5 tracks leave you wide “OPEN” (You know I gotta quote from the group that started NY Hardcore, BLACK MOON!!) and then he lets you catch your breath by attacking some less abrasive topics. So Track 6 has us entering the club with Jeezy and R&B Legend R-Kelly and you feel like you’re right there hollering at the hizzoez right alongside them! The chorus is catchy enough but not corny as you and Jeezy spot a fine broad and you tell yourselves..”Go Get’ta!!!!!” (Go Get her).

No doubt he needs to release this one. It takes off where the classic Akon blessed “Soul Survivor” left off. Actually at first I thought it was Akon singing the hook to this one cause the vibe of the song has that Akon feel (Not that I can truly know what an “Akon feel” is being he’s an R&B artist..more soulful than most though). Anyway I like this song man. Ni$$az gotta listen to something upbeat on the way to the club! But that’s the good thing about Benz0. I’m universal when it comes to hiphop. I can appreciate the genius of a down South club song like this yet get off on the rawness of a Philadelphia bred Black Thought verse. After taking us to the club Jeezy let’s us hang out AFTER THE CLUB with him as the Timbaland produced “3 A.M.” comes on which also is a perfect blend of commercial and realness too. What can you say about Timbaland though? He’s getting that dayum Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado money!!!! I mean I’d be real surprised if this dude isn’t the richest hiphop producer to ever live cause he’s literally extending the career of Justin. Hat’s off Timbo, that’s just incredible. I mean dude even has BENZ0 jamming to Justin Timberlake!!

But the reason we like Jeezy is cause he puts limits on his quasi-commercialism. He brings us all the way back into his grim realness frame of mind as we start to explore Track 8 that is fittingly titled “The Realest”. Then IT’S OVA!! when “Streets on Lock” comes on and just like that we’re riding the Jeezy Realness musical tidal wave as he takes us far far away deeper into his land of realness…YEAAAHHH!!!!...We then get treated to a 2007 “Murda was the Case” when we hear the gunshots pump into Jeezy’s body on “Bury Me A G” in which he describes his own death due to the hands of haters that hate seeing him shine. I’m feeling this song as 2006, New Year’s Eve was a time for haters. On this day the same type theoretical haters that shoot Jeezy on this song shoot a young black 24 yr old Denver Broncos NFL player in real life as dude sits in his Stretch Hummer Limo (Rest in peace Darrent Williams!!). Man same day them haters got Benz0 too!!! I was partying in the party capital of North America known as Montreal, Canada and these same dang hater types steal Benz0’s pimp SUV on New Year’s Eve!!! DAAYUUUMMM!!! Just like that there’s no more riding around in a luxurious SUV with TV’s, DVD Player and a sound system to kill for (at least for a month or so!). Hey but Benz0 dang sure had a better New Year’s day than Darrent Williams so can’t complain. But like Jeezy says “You can’t take nothing for granted, and don’t take granted for nothing..”.

Hey but who says Jeezy can’t get soulful on you? “Dreamin” shows you the versatility of Jeezy as we find ourselves reflecting with Jeezy as he shares his fears and joys with us. Dude needs to release this one too!! This song would get mad radio play and it’s not even commercial. Just a real song with a soulful chorus. Along that same soulful mode are “Mr. 17.5” and “The Inspiration”. But luckily we still get two more hardcore gems towards the end of the album in “Keep it Gangsta” and “I Got Money” (featuring T.I.) which are both classic Jeezy - Hardcore chorus, real baseline, and angry treble!! So once again all is well in THE LAND OF REALNESS. Jeezy you done, done it again!!! You’re a genius!! You gotta love it man. A modern day artist that actually puts mad thought into not only the lyrics and image but also the entire musical mood of the album that signifies their musical soul. I know a lot of “still in a 1990 time warp”, “Nas is the only good rapper left” type hiphop fans probably won’t even bother to pick up this album. Well, your loss. This is good hiphop like just like The Roots is good hiphop. Man it’s all hiphop!! Jeezy just represents that Down South Hiphop. That raw hiphop. It’s like my dad Fred Benjamin Sr. says: “If War came to America them down South dudes would probably be like the main leaders of The Resistance” cause they’re lifestyle is all about f$$$ what y’all thinking we got our own way of thinking and life going on down here and anyone that gets in the way of that has got trouble on their hands. Jeezy keep keeping it real man. Love ya for that Jeezy!! This album is in the MUST HAVE category.

Jeezy’s album is right up there with that E-40 and that 40 Cal. Those three I consider the top nationally released albums of 2006 (Late 2005) with honorable mentions to Get Rich Or Die Trying (G-Unit), J.R. Writer (HISTORY IN THE MAKING) and Lil Wayne (THE CARTER II). In full disclosure I have the new Nas album right in front of me but haven’t had the chance to open it yet. Maybe it’s tight too but I’ll let y’all know next album review. Happy New Year to all the Benz0 loyalists and hiphop loyalists in general no matter what coast or country you’re partial too!! Hiphop is the most creative, real, and lyrical genre ever created by man!!! “Champagne for my real friends and PAIN for my sham friends” – Ed Norton in 25th HOUR (Benz0’s favorite movie). The haters tried to take Benz0 out on New Year’s Eve just cause he shining now but watch how hard I come back on em' in '07!!!! You won’t believe the next ride he’s gonna get…Oh Boy!!!

Benz0
Contact Benz0: BenzWritings@Hotmail.com