Heralded as hip-hop’s newest “it” guy, Young Jeezy is doing big things in 2005.
Born Jay L. Jenkins, this 25-year-old Atlanta native is living out the dreams of many aspiring artists. But that was not his initial plan.
According to USA Today, Jeezy did not begin his career in the rap industry as an artist. At the age of 15, Jeezy started a record label called Young Guns Entertainment.
Jeezy explained to ballerstatus.net that at the time the artists were disagreeing on various issue and were not coming to the studio. Eventually a couple of the artists were arrested on murder charges and incarcerated, leaving Jeezy with a studio and no artists.
Jeezy began to rap.
He was known to visit strip clubs and night clubs to promote his music. “Come Shop Wit Me” was Jeezy’s first successful underground album; 50,000 copies were sold.
According to mvremix.com, Jeezy gained the attention of producer Jazze Pha, who in turn spoke to L.A. Reid, the president and CEO of Island Def Jam Music Group. Jeezy was later signed to the Def Jam record company.
Before Jeezy was introduced as a solo artist he collaborated with rappers Jody Breeze, Big Gee and Duke to form the group Boyz in da Hood. According to the groups’ official website, boyzindahood.com, the group came together when they were introduced to Block, their manager. Block formed the group in an unconventional way.
“I didn’t follow no industry guidelines. The hood taught me a lot and I kinda stick to those rules because that’s all I know. I stick to the basic g-code.” Block said on boyzindahood.com.
Block was an acquaintance of Diddy’s girlfriend, Kim Porter. He used this connection to get the group signed.
Diddy later approved the 15 tracks the group recorded, and they recorded five more after signing.
Jeezy currently has deals with two major labels. Both labels released two debut albums in July.
His albums have made top rank on the Billboard charts. According to defjam.com his solo album “Lets Get it: Thug Motivation 101” debuted at number two with 171,747 copies on the Billboard 200.
Boyz in da Hood debuted at number five with their self-titled album.
Aside from working with his labels, Jeezy is also constructing his own label: Corporate Thugz Entertainment (C.T.E.) and has an act already signed. The United Street Dopeboys of America (U.S.D.A.) will be Jeezy’s premier group.
The group will be releasing their album, “The Movement,” sometime soon. Whether it would be an underground or mainstream album is undetermined. Solo artist Slick Pulla is also signed to C.T.E.
Jeezy has taken time to help Katrina survivors. According to mtv.com Jeezy, David Banner, T.I, and Juice, an Atlanta magazine editor, have asked the people of Atlanta to fill trucks with goods for Gulf Coast survivors.
“I can only imagine what it was like to be there,” he said. “Nobody expected that. You don’t expect to wake up under 20 feet of water. At the end of the day, that’s life. How we handle this is going to set the tone for the future. This is one of the times we’ve got to come together. There’s like 14 people in my crib I never seen a day before in my life, but I ain’t tripping…We’ve got to help people start to rebuild their lives.”
- Jason Pugh