Young Jeezy Throws His Snow-Covered Hat Into The Ring
From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. After the jump, we look at the reactions to The Recession, the latest album by the seemingly unbannable Young Jeezy.
• “While Jeezy shows fear and loathing toward George W. throughout Recession, he’s got nothing but (heavy-handed) praise for Barack Obama on ‘My President.’ And even when club life rears its thuggish head (‘Put On’ with Kanye West), Jeezy is more pragmatic than dramatic. Finally, Jeezy’s having an outing that’s sexy and fun rather than discordant and deadly.” [Philadelphia Inquirer]
• “On ‘My President,’ which features Nas, Jeezy dreams of a black commander in chief and invokes higher powers, presumably to help with America’s dire economic situation: ‘I will e-mail Jesus and tell him to forward to Moses and cc Allah.’ But while the usual approach is still good for a certain seductive brawniness, there’s not much here that Jeezy hasn’t done before. If he doesn’t push things forward a bit, his market position may slip.” [RS]
• “One can argue the dubious merits of his philosophy–which can be distilled to two words: sell coke–but one can’t deny Jeezy’s popularity. His previous two efforts went platinum, with sales partially fueled by the rapper’s ‘Snowman’ T-shirt line. Jeezy’s sonic sins would be partially pardonable were The Recession to flash any hint of fun or humor. Instead, the street-cred-consumed caricature is more content to rip off Tupac Shakur (‘Hustlaz Ambition’) and write abominable hooks.” [LAT]
• “At his wackiest, though–see ‘My President Is Black,’ which features a couple of key deviations from the Obama platform–that blunt-sucking rasp can admittedly be endearing. And considering he has evidently convinced lots of folks that he’s somehow making drug dealing moral, Jeezy’s brightest future might be in politics instead.” [Hartford Courant]
