Young Jeezy Remembers Debut Album & Meaning of “Trap Music”

Can’t believe it’s been 10 years since touched the scene and helped usher in a the Southern Hip Hop dominance that is still prevalent today. If you remember buying Young Jeezy‘s Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101 album, then you’re most certainly getting up there in age bruh.

This album will be turning 10 years old on July 26, and a few days before that Jeezy has taken to his Instagram account to reminisce on the early days of his career and talk a little about what trap music meant then and how it’s changed now.

Read his full message below.

They say you have your whole life to make your first album, and they might be right.

Some call it poetry, others call it the ghetto gospel, but the industry calls it “trap music.” Go figure. Either way it’s the voice of the streets, and we all know that when the streets talk, we listen.

I find it odd when people use a negative connotation like “trap music,” when the message (lyrics) clearly states: make it out of your surroundings and be the best man and provider you can be. We call that being a boss where I’m from — a self made individual that refuses to let his environment dictate his or her outcome in life. This body of work you see before you is just that.

Every experience, every up, down and close call. All the nights that you prayed you could make it to see another day. All the sacrifices you made for friends and loved ones you lost to the street life. I can’t help but to think of all the obstacles I had to dodge and the times I was unsure. But I continued to keep my faith and hustle strong. I kept pushing!

When I said that the roaches were in the kitchen, I meant that! So now when I tell you the floors look like bowling balls, I mean that too. You can call it rags to riches, but I like to call it a boy becoming a man and believing in his dreams, goals and expectations. I never thought of “fame” or being accepted in this industry; my only thoughts were to represent and speak for every man, woman and child that was in the struggle and just wanted to make a better way of life, without taking no for an answer. With every song, verse and adlib on this body of work, you can hear that determination, that ambition and that drive in every word. If the album touched you in any way, just know that it was all for you.
I’d like to thank my fans and anybody that was a part of my journey. Here I am, 10 years later, doing what I love –motivating the people.

It’s funny, I thought Young Jeezy was trash when I first heard him. It was that “So Icy” with Gucci Mane, I honestly didn’t realize it was a song, I thought it was a one of the cheesy rap commercials about a jewelry store or something. It went on for more than a minute and I realized it was actually a song.

I remember laughing my ass off while driving, I couldn’t believe it.

Fast forward to the present day, Young Jeezy is of favorite artists overall, from the albums to mixtapes, that man has placed himself in the History books. You know you’ve made it when the President of the United States shouts you out.