Three years ago, Young Jeezy’s album Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation went largely unnoticed aside from the Akon collaboration “Soul Survivor,” which dominated radio waves for most of the summer. According to Young Jeezy, his new album “is like Thug Motivation on steroids.”
While far from a masterpiece, The Recession does have a few hit-worthy tracks mixed in among mediocre songs. The album opens with the anthemic title track, in which orchestrated swells and clashing cymbals add life to the simple lyrics: “It’s a recession, everybody broke/so I came back, to give everybody hope.” But the album slips into bland repetition for the next 15 songs.
“Welcome Back” chronicles the return of Young Jeezy to the rap scene, but it sounds like it was ripped directly from Lil Wayne’s “3 Peat,” which asserted Wayne’s own dominance in the game. “Welcome Back,” like most of the album, falls back on old beats and rhymes, and it isn’t even ironic sampling—it’s just not fresh. The songs are of decent quality and certainly well-mixed, but they lack originality. Haven’t we heard enough about Chevys and “stuntin’ on these hos”?
Jeezy picks up the pace with Kanye West on “Put On,” which you’ve probably already heard pumping from a stereo during a party. But the gem of this album is the instantly catchy “Mr. President,” in which Young Jeezy trades verses with Nas to demand an Obama presidency. Over beats that draw on the symphonic sound typical of T.I. and Fat Joe, Jeezy catalogues America’s problems and raps, “My president is black, my lambo’s blue, and I’ll be goddamned if my rims ain’t too.” I don’t see any connection between rims and Obama, but the verses are clearly intended to inspire voters and demand change. However, despite Jeezy’s intentions to spin socially conscious verses, he falls short with lyrics that are stilted and contrived (“Mr. Black President, yo Obama for real, they gotta put your face on the five thousand dollar bill.”) It is less a criticism of the Bush regime than of the selectivity of American politics.
For 18 tracks “The Recession” mostly leaves you wondering if Young Jeezy’s holding out on us. Maybe he’s just warming up his social-activism streak, and better things lie ahead; or maybe, once he finds some new beats, he’ll drop the contrived lyrics and stick to making hits.
Voice’s Choices: “Put On” “My President” “The Recession”
