No matter what is being supplied, a hustler is only as good as his word. With Atlanta serving up some of the hottest product in the rap game, native son Young Jeezy stands as one of the most exciting merchants of cool to emerge in years. Thanks to underground testimonials like “Air Forces” and “Chuuch,” Jeezy’s street swagger and authentic style has quickly made believers out of some the biggest players in the game, from Fabolous to P. Diddy. In his native Atlanta, and throughout the south, Young Jeezy has created nothing short of a movement. Now the world will get to find out what insiders have been buzzing about when his Def Jam debut, Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101 drops this summer. Like many hustlers on the mic, rapping wasn’t in Jeezy’s original game plan. As CEO of Corporate Thug Entertainment, Jeezy was content to stack his paper from the background.

“Before music I was just trying to survive out this motherfucker. I had other artists, some local cats off the street, but it didn’t work out,” explains the twenty-five year old Georgia native. “So I just decided to do it myself. Ain’t nobody gonna go as hard as you gonna go. I saw the bigger picture at the time. I have a way with words and I know how to hustle.” Having lost many things in his life-- family, friends and time (a prison bid that he doesn’t like to give too much light)--Jeezy had a sense of urgency about his music. So he hit the mixtape circuit with exclusive tracks recorded with longtime collaborator Shawty Red. With over 100,000 mixtapes and over 200,000 Trap Or Die DVD’s sold in a little more than a year, Def Jam decided to invest in the youngster and made him the most recent signee to the label.

“Basically, I’m a real nigga so I can relate more to a lot of cats,” Jeezy says of his appeal. “ I don’t just do music for the clubs, I do music for the struggle. I do music for everyday niggas, the kids who ain’t got no sense of direction. I’m trying to restore some of the morals back into the game, as far as the street.”