The south continued its ascendancy in the mid-2000s to become the most popular & influential region in hiphop. The twin commercial juggernauts of T.I. & Young Jeezy popularized the ATL trap sound, & by the time this album--Jeezy's major-label debut--came around, it was well-established: ominous synths & orchestra swells, tight 808s with handclaps & hi-hats alternating between 8th-note & 16th-note patterns, thanks to iconic beatmakers like Shawty Redd (who handles 7 of the album's 19 tracks), Drumma Boy, & the great Mannie Fresh. After 2 indie street albums & a mixtape, Jeezy's vocal style was fully formed as well: adlibs mixed at the same volume as the mains, lots of punch-ins, straightforward midtempo flows. This album was the 2x-platinum sensation that laid the groundwork for 1000 imitators, spelled the end of the crunk era, & whose reverberations are still being felt today.
"Yeeeeeah"; "that's riight"; "let's get it!" "ayyyyyy!" When discussing Jeezy you don't even need to quote a lyric, just an adlib. I can't think of an earlier rapper who became as famous (if not more famous) for his adlibs as for his bars. DMX? Close but not quite. Lil Jon? Sure, but not really a rapper. Pusha T? Yeeugh. If not the very first rapper whose adlibs threatened to eclipse his lyrics, Jeezy was certainly close to it, & contributed to today's rap culture where it's impossible to succeed without a lit adlib game. But don't sleep on Jeezy's pen: his howling mic presence, luxury drug dealer persona, money & coke brags, & simple wordplay might seem basic, but he brings it across with such supreme confidence that you can't help but get swept up in it all. He's also one of the only rappers I can think of who gets away with rhyming the same phrase with itself as often as he does. Just a single example from "Talk To Em": "I wish we could trade places/Swear to god dog, I wish we could trade places." It shouldn't work, but it does; somehow the repetition comes off not as a lack of imagination but a technique for lost-for-words emotional emphasis. In context, addressing his imprisoned loved one, the repetition says more than extra words probably could.
In retrospect, the ATL trap sound was so fresh & exciting at the time that most of us didn't notice how repetitive this album feels over its generous 77 minutes. There's not a lot of variety among the beats: almost all of them feature similar tempos, textures & moods--the sinister street synths I mentioned above. When a beat does stand out, it's due to a little refinement of the formula like the portamento synth melody over the chorus of Midnight Black's "Let's Get It/Sky's the Limit," or the harmonically shifting triumphant MIDI horn section fanfare of "Trap Star"--a far cry from the snap sound that made Mr. Collipark a radio sensation.
The exceptions to the album's sonic homogeny are the aforementioned "Talk To Em" with its gospel choirs, guitars & Frankie Beverly sample; & "Go Crazy," a more MPC boom-bap sound with a Curtis Mayfield sample & one of Jigga's iconic features of the era. You have to admire Jeezy for inviting Hov onto a beat like this, where he always floats, knowing he would be outrapped. But I doubt he had much emcee ego about that--as he says on "Get Ya Mind Right": "Miss me with that rap shit/Rappin' ass n***a, you better do numbers/I ain't gotta rap, I'mma do numbers."
On the subject of "Go Crazy," maybe this outs me as only a casual Jeezy fan, but this is one of those mainstream efforts where the singles are the best songs. Mannie Fresh's insanely catchy "And Then What," Akon's "Soul Survivor" with its syncopated hook, & "My Hood" are compulsive singalongs that play amazing in the club--at least they did back in my clubgoing days.
(Side note: I always thought "My Hood" was a David Banner beat, but apparently it's produced by Lil' C & just samples "Rubber Band Man." In hindsight, it makes sense that Banner wouldn't plagiarize himself that closely. Either way, I dare you not to sing along to "Ford Taurus pull up, everybody run.")
Jeezy & his whole universe might not be quite in the center of my rap wheelhouse, but I have all the respect in the world for what he does & how he does it. This album--especially the singles--got plenty of play from me back in the day. Jeezy might not be a flawless album maker, but his single game has always been second to none.
(Lagniappe: I didn't own The Recession on CD so I won't write about it in this series, but just know that "My President" is unambiguously the best song from 2008.)
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