“He’d been killed maybe two or three days prior. Shortly after the death of Michael Brown, Jeezy’s tour with Wiz Khalifa had a concert in St. He’s not afraid to talk to his 19-year-old son about the reality of police brutality. They were my therapy, so when people hear them, they might think, ‘Why he going that way?’ But that’s how I feel.” A lot of the records you’ve heard so far might give off that conscious direction, but that’s the way I was feeling when I was doing those songs. On the new album, I’ve definitely got music that the people love me for. I wouldn’t call it lashing out, but I’m not gonna hold my tongue just because you look at me in a better way.” He’s also not worried if that brutal honesty upsets fans. You’ll hear some of that frustration in my music. I just felt like that was the ultimate slap in the face, because I tried my best to stay out of situations,” he says, referring to his drug-dealing past, “and ended up being in them anyway. “Ain’t shit cool about sitting in jail, especially when you’re grown and have real-life responsibilities. A judge later dismissed those charges, but the arrest and stint in jail were enough to shake Jeezy up. Jeezy’s candor on his new album stems from a 2014 arrest, when he was falsely accused of being tied to a fatal shooting at a Wiz Khalifa concert in California last year and arrested on weapons charges. “I’ll tell you what, though, I would love to make some music with the new president if Kanye happened to make it there.”įacing a potential long-term prison sentence brought up some old demons. “I’d definitely have to see Kanye’s plan and hear him out first ,” he jokes of his good friend’s presidential aspirations. We’ve got a lot of problems on our front lawns and we need to clean that up first.” He’s been watching the next election closely - he held a viewing party for the first GOP debate - but he’s already looking ahead to 2020. I’d like to see him get a little more aggressive with what’s going on. I don’t question that some people have been affected by what he’s done, but some people weren’t.” Can Obama still redeem himself? Jeezy remains hopeful: “He has a little over a year left to turn up. Like everybody else, I thought we were gonna wake up and it was gonna all be better. “I’ve said that I’ve seen a black president, but I didn’t see change. But he’s quick to note now that that doesn’t mean he isn’t disappointed.
“He had to fix the economy, healthcare,” he reminded the other panelists. When Larry Wilmore invited Jeezy as a guest on The Nightly Show last month, he appeared sympathetic of President Obama’s many roadblocks.
He’s no politician, but he’s got Election 2016 on his mind. We talked to the Snowman about his thoughts on Obama’s presidency, the night he thought his past finally caught up with him, and why he’s not here to bullshit anyone. Just two days prior, he’d surprise-released a new EP, Politically Correct, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March, where he sat front-row alongside Diddy. Vulture recently caught up with Jeezy at the Manhattan offices of Avión Tequila, for which he serves as a “multicultural adviser” (smart move, you just made us say their name). On Church in These Streets, his new LP out this week, he’s back in Pastor Young mode for the first time since 2008’s Recession, again placing a passionately delivered sermon to the hood at the album’s heart. Even at nearly 40, Jeezy has no intention of removing himself from the city that shaped both his sound and character. At Chance the Rapper’s stop in Atlanta on his Family Matters Tour last week, the face of rap’s next generation paid respect to one of the A’s elders, bringing out Jeezy to perform one of his biggest hits, “ Put On.” Ten years ago, Jeezy (or Young Jeezy as he was known when he was, you know, younger) released one of Southern trap’s seminal records with his major-label debut, Thug Motivation: 101, an anniversary he recently celebrated with a star-studded concert and documentary.