Album Review: Seen It All: The Autobiography by Jeezy

Stuck in prison on gun charges as this seventh studio album saw release, Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy -- or now, just Jeezy -- mentions he doesn't "eat, sleep, or shit" without his m-f'n pistol. This evidence for the prosecution shows up here on the hooky thug cut called "Me OK," a Drumma Boy and Jeezy wonder where criminal-minded lyrics are packed tight into a singalong list of dirty deeds done dirt cheap ("Mister, if I'm talkin' you should listen, game is free, ok?/Got two whole ones and two half ones, mister that's three, ok?"). "Seen It All" is the reflective flipside of "Me OK," where Cardo's exotic production and Jeezy's tale of no regrets and night sweats ("Not only got my fingers crossed, but I pray") add up to something equally vital.

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There isn't a single voice more evocative of mid-to-late-aughts Southern gangsta rap than Young Jeezy's sonorous wheeze. But in a year dominated by stylistic experimentalists like Migos and Future, Jeezy faces the very real threat of sounding outdated. On his seventh studio album, however, he's reinvigorated, dipping a toe into some of rap's newer stylistic trends.

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A decade is an eternity in Rap years, and that truth isn’t lost on Jeezy. These days he raps about crimes for which the statute of limitations would have long expired with a renewed sense of purpose, as if reflecting upon everything he has survived with a smug sense of satisfaction. It isn’t that he foresees his impending downfall; he simply hears the grumblings of those writing his career obituary while the scene he helped build rapidly changes around him.

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When you're 36 years old and dropping your fifth major rap album, it's time to drop the "young" prefix. By now, Atlanta trap star Jeezy — who actually made local noise back in 2001 under the handle Lil J — is anything but a novice. So as fellow ATLiens Ludacris, T.I. and Gucci Mane have, at times, reached higher highs, they've also released some bricks.

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Jeezy :: Seen It All: The AutobiographyCTE World/Def JamAuthor: Steve 'Flash' JuonI can't really blame Young Jeezy for dropping the "Young" - after all he's 36 now. We posed the question on our review of his major label debut, and he answered it for us, so YOU GO JAY. Meanwhile Young MC never did drop the "Young" once he was in his 30's or 40's, which is either a tribute to his perseverance or a testament to his irrelevance.

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On Seen It All, Jeezy – who dropped the "Young" back when he'd only seen most of it – returns to the ominous beats and deliberate bars that made him famous. There are stories so vivid they seem drawn from real events – bittersweet drug-dealing tales that mix success and betrayal. Gossip hounds will be happy to find all the hiphop blind items – "Holy Ghost," whose title refers to a recent Rolls-Royce model, chastises old friends who turned their back in pursuit of luxury-car-level success.

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With few exceptions, the release of a major-label record from a hip-hop veteran tends to be inherently sad, a merciful end to its struggle for existence. It carries constant reminders of the indifference it faced in numerous record label offices: catchphrases and namedrops that would’ve been timely had the record dropped a year or so ago, big-name producers appearing as courteous gestures and for quick paychecks, a tracklist riddled with guest verses and collaborations that somehow seem reverent and disrespectful at the same time. As with Jeezy’s previous LP, 2011's Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition, all of these things are present on Seen It All: The Autobiography.

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Nine years ago Let's Get It: Thug Inspiration 101 introduced the world to Young Jeezy, a self-purportedly hard-as-fuck rapper with a sandpaper delivery and a chameleonic ability to wade comfortably in whatever production style is in vogue at the moment. His success can be attributed to the workmanlike approach he honed pushing narcotics in his youth. Despite the fact that he's at the point in his career where he's alternating between serving as a Vice President of A&R at Atlantic Records and fighting million-dollar-bail gun charges, Jeezy is among rap's least heralded elder statesmen.

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It’s been three years since hip-hop last saw an album from America’s favorite rapper, Jeezy. Even though Jeezy has been relatively quiet as a solo artist, Jeezy has found new success behind the scenes as Atlantic Records’ Senior VP of A&R and rebranding his CTE World imprint with free compilation tapes. After putting his energy into the careers of YG and Doughboyz Cashout, Tha Snowman returns with his fifth studio album, Seen It All: The Autobiography.

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Earth and Yob are both trios from the Pacific Northwest led by middle-aged men with some kind of attachment to the riffs and textures of early metal, a preference for slow tempos and some implicit understanding of songs as life-forms, with all the action at the deep center. Which is to say that ….

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Why does Jeezy sound so energized on Seen It All? At this point in a rapper’s career a new record is supposed to be almost an afterthought, a brief bit of face time with the CEO when he’s in the office instead of on his yacht. But there’s Jeezy, bobbing and weaving through a rhyme scheme for two minutes straight on “Black Eskimo. ” There he is dropping a career-quality hook on “Holy Ghost.

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On “Beez Like,” one of the best tracks on Jeezy’s fifth studio effort, the veteran MC reflects on his identification with young hustlers struggling to survive on the streets. Unfortunately, Jeezy actually sounds disconnected from the economic despair and violence now plaguing urban America. There’s no attempt to dig deeper, to explore the ways that what he’s seen is somehow relevant.

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