While some casual listeners might find the album’s throwback vibe frustratingly redundant and uninventive, eventually the album reveals its true intentions of not just reliving the past, but re-appropriating its excitement for today’s sonic landscape.
Along with songs that blatantly proclaim a return to 2005 like “Way Too Gone,” first listens of the album scream of Jeezy “performing the hits.” Everything from the stretched adlibs (“ yeeeeeeah” and “ hah-ha!”) to the focus on rapping the same word with itself in a different context implies attempt to rekindle the peculiar feeling of hearing Jeezy for the first time. While he’s been critically lauded in recent years, the stranglehold Jeezy had on the rap world seven years ago is the type of superstardom few in the genre ever achieve. This return to his debut’s moniker matches the album’s echoes of nostalgia. But, class back in session, Jeezy has finally readied Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition. His latest album has faced so many delays that its first Grammy-nominated single came out two years ago. The breakout star of rap group Boyz n da Hood, Jeezy found tremendous chart (and promotional snowman t-shirt) success with his solo albums Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101, The Inspiration and his critically acclaimed 2008 release The Recession. While Jay-Z led to the rise of an entrepreneurial sentiment in the genre and Kanye West opened up a lane for less aggressive, sensitive types, Jeezy (along with Clipse) helped popularize the bleak soundscape of trap-hop (cocaine-centric rap) and brought with it a charisma and style an entire sub-genre has attempted to emulate. Few rappers shaped the past decade of hip-hop like Young Jeezy.
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