(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AND THEN WHAT")
JEEZY: (Singing) Let's get it. First, I'm gone stack my flo'. And then what? Then I'm gone stack some mo'. And then what?
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Twenty years ago, rapper Young Jeezy dropped his album, "Thug Motivation 101"...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GO CRAZY (REMIX) [FEAT JAY-Z]")
JEEZY: (Singing) When they play that new Jeezy, all the dope boys go crazy.
RASCOE: ...And became a premier force in hip-hop.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOUL SURVIVOR (FEAT AKON)")
JEEZY: (Singing) If you a rider, yeah. Oh, yes, a soul survivor. Gotta watch your...
RASCOE: To celebrate the anniversary of that album, Jeezy, aka Jay Jenkins, wanted to do something a little different - a tour capped off by a residency in Las Vegas, accompanied by a 101-piece orchestra. Joining us now is the man himself. Jeezy, welcome to the program.
JEEZY: Thank you for having me. That was a great intro.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: Yes. I was definitely dancing. I love all of them. What made you want to revisit "Thug Motivation 101" all these years after it came out? - because it was a moment.
JEEZY: Yeah. I mean, I look at it like I'm definitely a wine connoisseur, a art connoisseur. I think art, wine and things that are great like that get better with time, you know? And I felt like 20 years of this album feeling like it's fresh, it had to be celebrated, right? And then at the same time, you take it to the next level.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RASCOE: That's why you brought the symphony in it, to give it, like, a different feel to it? - 'cause you are officially a Guinness World Record-holder for largest...
JEEZY: Yes.
RASCOE: ...Orchestra for a hip-hop concert. So we heard a bit of "And Then What" at the top of the interview. But I want to play the live-orchestra version this time.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AND THEN WHAT (LIVE)")
JEEZY: (Singing) First, I'm gone stack my flo'. And then what? Then I'm gone stack some mo'. And then what? Close shop then I do my count. Hide the rest of the yams at my auntie house. And then what? Get fresh...
RASCOE: What does bringing in the symphony add to the show?
JEEZY: The first thing is, I can't speak for everyone, but I know my first time ever seeing a symphony and a orchestra was the first time I performed with one. So I wanted to take that experience around the world 'cause there's a lot of Black and brown boys and girls and adults that haven't even seen this experience ever.
And then the second tier, that would be just really showing culture that you can evolve. You don't have to stay in this box for people to accept you. You can be creative. You could be innovative. You can think outside of the box, and that's OK. It's always the stigma that there's, you know, violence around it. There's negativity around it. And this is the exact opposite. There's a light around this. There's celebration around this. There's people that's coming on couple dates. Like, this - you know, it's a date night. You know what I'm saying?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AND THEN WHAT (LIVE)")
JEEZY: (Singing) Hit the club and get one of dem broads. And then what? It's a wrap, we on the way to the house. By 3:45, I'll be kicking her out.
(CHEERING)
RASCOE: You also found time to put out a studio album this year with DJ Drama. It's called...
JEEZY: Yes.
RASCOE: ..."Still Snowin'"...
JEEZY: "Still Snowin'," yes.
RASCOE: ...Which is a reference to one of your nicknames, is Snowman.
JEEZY: Yes, Snowman, that part.
RASCOE: Well, what are the vibes on this record?
JEEZY: This is probably one of my most creative years. DJ Drama, if you know anything about my career, has been a part of my career since the beginning. We put together a project called "Still Snowin'." And this project, to me, is more of a passion project, but it's where I'm at. It's my truth. I like old-school music.
RASCOE: Yeah.
JEEZY: So if you're thinking about sounds of Blackness, "Head To The Sky," you got '70s and '80s samples, and these are the actual songs. You got Toni Braxton, "Another Sad Love Song."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ANOTHER SAD SONG")
JEEZY: (Singing) Cost to cost. Martin Luther King to be down to walk. I wonder if Oprah be down to talk. Before another mama baby be lying in chalk.
TONI BRAXTON: (Singing) It's just another sad love song.
JEEZY: (Singing) Just another homicide.
BRAXTON: (Singing) Racking my brain like crazy.
JEEZY: (Singing) Another night, another mama cry. Her baby been identified.
BRAXTON: (Singing) Guess I'm all torn up. Be it fast...
JEEZY: (Singing) Now she going to have to catch a ride. Yeah.
RASCOE: And that's different from kind of the Southern trap rap we used to, trap music. What made you want to switch it up like this?
JEEZY: I don't think it's switching up. I think it's in my truth. I hear people all the time saying, why don't you do that anymore? But, like, I got - you know, I got a discography of, you know, 20 projects like that. You can go listen to that all day.
RASCOE: Yeah, yeah.
JEEZY: And the vibration where I'm at, where my spirit is, I'm on things that I connect with, and this is my truth. Like, I sit around the house and listen to this music. And this is a different, you know, sound from what I would normally do. But this is for the grown and sexy.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BACK FOR MORE")
JEEZY: (Singing) First they love me, then they hate me, then they love me, then they hate me. Whole while, they talking about they wouldn't date me. You know how much that I get wrong. Y'all mad that I picked wrong. My mother record been impeccable this long. I know a gang of y'all should question, the list long. And ever since that OK feature, the list long. And y'all would rather judge a, 'cause a, never was a sucker, oh.
RASCOE: I interviewed Pusha T a couple years ago, and he said something that stuck with me. Like, he called himself the Martin Scorsese of street rap and the Dr. Seuss of cocaine. I hear you talking about how this is art, but, you know, like so many times, hip-hop is not put in that same category as art. And what Pusha was saying was, he's a storyteller. And is that how you see yourself?
JEEZY: I see myself as an urban philosopher. I never looked at this as music. I looked at this as leadership, right? And it's not what you say, it's what you do. My words match my accent. This is how I'm living. This is what I'm doing. And to double down on that, I feel that, you know, we're all poets. We just pick certain soundtracks to go behind the stories and the words that we're putting together. This is all poetry.
RASCOE: 'Cause, I mean, obviously, when you talk about snowing, Snowman - there is the drug game reference. So you talk about trap music. Is that...
JEEZY: Right.
RASCOE: ...Like, a metaphor?
JEEZY: For me or them (laughter)?
RASCOE: It was life for you, but is it a metaphor for the audience?
JEEZY: Yeah.
RASCOE: 'Cause I may feel it as I'm, you know, in my...
JEEZY: Right.
RASCOE: ...Minivan...
JEEZY: Right, right.
RASCOE: ...You know, driving my kids, but that's not my life. You know what I'm saying?
JEEZY: Well, I feel like deep down inside, we all trappers 'cause we want more. We get out, and we strive every day. We just get up and, you know, do the best we can. Yeah, still Snowman because that's who I am. It's Snowman forever.
RASCOE: But that's not about the occupation. That's about what it represents - the hustle, the hustle.
JEEZY: The hustle, right.
RASCOE: The hustle.
JEEZY: But the hustle - but turned entrepreneur.
RASCOE: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SNOWMAN PARTY")
JEEZY: (Singing) I'm just praying I ball in my next life, spend a couple mil on my next wife. Flaw s***? Nah, I ain't that type. Dogs won't hit on the scent, long as it's wrapped tight. What I look like living the rap life? Where these die everyday, real, is that right. I'm just trying to take care of my folks. These terrorists ain't no joke. On this red wine trying to cope. It's the first of the month...
RASCOE: On this song, like, you're referencing how things have changed. Like, you like, back in the day, I might have been in here with the kilo. Now I'm being here in a different way.
JEEZY: I'm saying the D4 - now you catch me with - on the beach with a D4. That's a Cuban cigar.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SNOWMAN PARTY")
JEEZY: (Singing) Back then, catch me at the spot with a kilo. Nowadays, catch me on the beach with a D4. I said ain't no party like a Snowman party. At a Snowman party, ain't no baby lotion, just red wine. Got it all covered...
To me, "Snowman Party" is that. It's like, ain't no baby oil, just red wine. Like, we living over here. Like, we're not tripping. This is my life. I don't got no problem saying that. Like, there is a such thing called a soft life. My life has been hard for 48 years. You know what I'm saying? So...
RASCOE: Yeah, yeah.
JEEZY: ...I'm trying to live that life where I can actually have experiences with my family, or I can turn my friends on the things they never seen. I can take them places they never even heard of. I can uplift the people that are around me, that are in my circle as we're building this empire.
RASCOE: It's telling people you living life how you living now, right?
JEEZY: Right. And I get it. And I get it 'cause people ain't there yet, but this is what I will say. I don't know how many Jay-Z songs I listened to sitting on my auntie front porch, trying to figure out how to get out of there. But all I know is, he said he was drinking Cristal, and that's what I wanted to drink, so I had to figure it out. That inspired me. And I had no idea what it looked like, what it was going to taste like. But I can, in the back of my mind, say, it's possible.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STILL SNOWIN'")
JEEZY: Yeah.
RASCOE: That was Jeezy. He's performing his own "Nutcracker Suite" in Las Vegas on December 19 and 21. Thank you so much for speaking with me today.
JEEZY: You guys have amazing holidays, and I'll see y'all there. Planet Hollywood, pull up.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STILL SNOWIN'")
JEEZY: (Singing) Why they call that Snow? 'Cause that boy went polar. I could see it in his face, yeah, that boy Minnesota. Solja rag, yeah, that's when I'm in the 'Nolia, selling that white girl, Tony Montana. I just put a four in the baby in the stroller, all-yellow box with an arm and a shoulder. Got twenty of them left, yeah, I'm trying meet my quota. Catch me at Carbone's chilling with the owner. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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