On the wicked Okayplayer bitch slap "Word Play", he drops a drug-selling campaign slogan ("You niggas want word play but I got bird play"), reveals his anti-matter approach as ingenious strategy ("I'm way too intelligent to play up my intelligence"- still President Bush, take note), and floats democratic ideals before snatching them back with an iron fist ("If had to pass the torch that bitch would go to me/ Now wouldn't you agree?/ Doesn't matter, I accept!"). In this version of The Dark Knight, Jeezy is everyone: caped crusader, diabolical villain, jolly fatalist, big guy who surprisingly takes the moral high ground. After all, there's no time for Plato (or KRS-One) style philosophizing in 2008, when sound bites talk and your iTunes hotness pales compared to the Jonas Brothers. It's the guy who stacks his hoarse vocals in an effort to inspire and motivate on albums like The Inspiration and Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101. This is Young Jeezy the Savior- the same guy who wore a Marvel-like seal on the front of his chest at a recent New York City concert. "It's a recession, everybody broke/ So I just came back to give everybody hope," huffs the street preacher on the title track. And, like a certain history-making Harvard Law School alum, Jeezy is searching for change from the inside out while trying to maintain a superhero guise. If there's any sort of recession happening on the album, it's a mental one- for the first time, Jeezy questions the world around him instead of simply reveling in it by any means necessary. Like the world's most famous 72-year-old Republican, the rapper is trying to tweak a working formula to his advantage. So instead of offering Economist-style predictions and Dowd-y editorials, Jeezy gives us a Jeezy record: synthetic beats that come down like anvils, ad libs by the freight load, and all-or-nothing Bald Bull punchlines. Jeezy, like McCain and Obama, is a quality politician who knows how to appeal to his base. But really, The Recession relates to the recession about as much as McCain relates to pacifist immigrants there's no mention of subprime mortgages or the credit crunch throughout its 18 tracks. This confused stance makes more sense after listening to the Atlanta MC's third LP, billed as a response to the country's current economic troubles. Young Jeezy "fucks with John McCain," but he's an ardent Barack Obama supporter.
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January 2023
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