*”Not every rapper who identifies with “trap” music has shown an eagerness to evolve into community leadership outside of their storied street-entrepreneurial beginnings.
Yet trap music impresario Jeezy has gone from encouraging a “Trap or Die” mentality to providing political thug motivation in recent years, endorsing President-Elect Joe Biden in the 2020 election, tweeting support for Hillary Clinton in 2015, and giving fans on both sides of the tracks the unforgettable song “My President Is Black” in time to inspire energy in Barack Obama’s historic 2008 victory.
The Georgia resident and “Recession 2″ rapper tells “Rolling Stone” how he came to endorse Obama and record the political rap record which became an unofficial campaign theme song (and whose video featured a cheerful cameo from the late John Lewis), how monetary policy factored into his political awakening, and the importance of the upcoming Senate runoff in Georgia on January 5th.”
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ABOUT JEEZY:
With more than a dozen RIAA gold, platinum, and multi-platinum hits to his credit, JEEZY, the Atlanta pioneer of hip-hop’s dominant trap genre, has amassed over 6.5 billion catalog streams, and over 960 million YouTube channel views. 2020 marked the 15th anniversary of Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101, his seminal RIAA platinum debut album via Def Jam. It entered the Rap and R&B charts at #1 (#2 on the pop side), and immortalized trap music with the double-platinum #1 hit “Soul Survivor” featuring Akon.
The RIAA platinum TM 102: The Inspiration (2006, with “Go Getta” featuring R. Kelly and “I Luv It”) entered at #1 across the board (pop, R&B and Rap), as did the album that followed, the aptly-titled The Recession (2008), containing the #1 double-platinum hit “Put On” featuring Kanye West. JEEZY’s next two albums, TM 103: Hustlerz Ambition (2011, with the Top 5 hits “Lose My Mind” featuring Plies; and “Leave You Alone” featuring Ne-Yo) and Seen It All: The Autobiography (2014, with the RIAA gold title tune “Seen It All” featuring Jay-Z) kept up the momentum, both of them again entering the Rap and R&B album charts at #1.
Trap Or Die 3 (Oct. 2016, with “All There” featuring the late Bankroll Fresh) was JEEZY’s third LP to debut at #1 across-the-board on the pop, R&B/hip-hop, and Rap charts. Guests also included Plies Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, French Montana, Yo Gotti, and Bankroll Fresh. JEEZY headlined the “Trap Or Die 3 Tour” in March-April 2017. Pressure (Dec. 2017) had features by fellow Def Jam MCs YG and 2 Chainz, as well as Rick Ross, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Puff Daddy, Kodak Black and others. In February-March 2018, JEEZY headlined “The Cold Summer Tour,” during which he shocked fans around the world by first announcing that his next album (i.e. TM 104) would be his final one.
Joanne Hunter / [email protected]
