Streets Is Talking: Young Jeezy

Young Jeezy’s got something to say. You really should know why if you’ve been following the always entertaining, and insightful, banter of Pimp C. Much has been said about Pimp’s assertion in Ozone Magazine’s August 2007 issue that a certain Mr. 17.5 wasn’t coming correct with his math. Mind you, the UGK vet never implicitly singles out Jeezy as the culprit in print or on his storied interview on Atlanta’s Hot 107.9. When XXL Magazine asked Pimp C in their October 2007 issue to again clarify the “17.5” reference, he reiterated that Jeezy was a “cold muthafucka with a microphone” but didn’t back down on his assertion that the numbers aren’t adding up. Jeezy has been mum with his take on the chatter. But, he’s blessed AllHipHop with the opportunity to get his opinions on the matter, along with bigging up his present endeavors, of course. Now before heads go running at the lip or tip tapping at their keyboard with partial quotes to incite more hype, please know that there is no beef. It comes down to a difference in opinion, and below you’ll find Jeezy’s. AllHipHop.com: How ya feeling?Young Jeezy: Like a million dollars homie. For the record I’m doing me. I just been running trying to get some money but I’m all ears, anything you asking I’m answering. AllHipHop.com: What’s up with the clothing line?Young Jeezy: Aww man, 8732 it’s crazy right now. I’m doing the official launch Thursday, September 28. AllHipHop.com: Is the clothing line through Roc-a-Wear?Young Jeezy: Yeah, we got a collabo. I sit down with the powers that be man and we got it really cracking. I really wanted to do it and they had a crazy outlet so we just made it happen. AllHipHop.com: What’s the meaning behind the clothing lines names?Young Jeezy: It’s the culture. When I went in it for USDA they wouldn’t let me do it, so I just flipped it. If you really from the streets and you know the old school ways, when you want to get at somebody without saying, you just put it on their pager, ya know, dial it in the phone. So basically if you go to the phone booth back in the day, you put it in somebody’s pager, you look at their pager and read it, USDA spells out 8732. It’s two or three different logos for it but we mostly playing with the numbers. It’s one hundred, I wouldn’t even lie to you. It’s doing real good in the stores right now, when I’m out and about I see people really wearing it, really buying it, really supporting it man, I can’t do nothing but thank them for that. Other than that man we just grind. I might be back in on another album, I might not be. [laughing]AllHipHop.com: Come on man, the streets ain’t trying to hear you retiring.Young Jeezy: Ya know, just tell them get ready for me though because when I come, I’m coming right. It’s going to be my best work.AllHipHop.com: Do you have a release date yet?Young Jeezy: Nah man. I could be done right now to be honest with ya, I really never stop recording bruh. I never really stop. It’s just depending on how I’m feeling and when I feel the vibe I’m moving.  AllHipHop.com: What about a title?Young Jeezy: Yeah but I’ma keep that under wraps because I don’t want nobody getting a hold of no songs and putting a Young Jeezy album out. [laughing]. [Corporate Thugz Entertainment] is good, I got some West Coast things going on. I got 2 Eleven and Young Rocket from out there. 211 from Inglewood, Roccett from Carson, them my homies from out West so we been dealing with them lately. We got Slick Pulla and Blood Raw, they going to drop at the top of the year. I just signed my man out of Jackson, MI, Boo the Boss Playa, he one of my homies I been knowing him for a long time but he been on the grind. We just got a chance to really make it official.  AllHipHop.com: So what’s your take on Keisha Cole’s article in Essence Magazine?Young Jeezy: Aww man, ya know, I guess it’s publicity season everybody trying to sell records. Can’t knock her for that but I ain’t really tripping because that don’t pertain to me. She can’t obviously be talking about me. It’s publicity season, everybody’s doing what they do, so I guess that’s what that is. AllHipHop.com: So you wanted to address  the Pimp C situation so…Young Jeezy: Yeah, ask whatever questions you want to ask, I’m answering. We gon’ keep it one hundred around here. We can get in depth about whatever you want to get in depth about, it’s AllHipHop, let’s do it. AllHipHop.com:  Just so we’re clear, Pimp questioned the figure 17.5. He’s been adamant that he wasn’t referring to you, but people are wondering if it’s still a slight to you since you go by Mr. 17.5.Young Jeezy: If he ain’t referring to me he ain’t referring to me but first of all I’m one hundred, I’m a real street ni**a and I ain’t gotta stress that. And nor will I get myself or anybody in my circle indicted to prove nothing to no ni**a, but at the end of the day that what it is and that’s what I’m standing on. He been gone six years, he don’t know what’s been going on in these streets. And to be honest with you, nobody ain’t got to go shop over that way anyway. Come on man, this real man, this the world. You can go to the West Coast, you can go wherever you need to go to do what you got to do, ain’t just one store. [laughing]I don’t know what that’s about but I’m still standing on it. It’s 17.5, ni**a got a problem with it, then let’s get it. AllHipHop.com: Have you spoken to Pimp C at all since all this came about?Young Jeezy: No, they reached out man but I’ma be real, I’ma keep it 100, when he said he won’t speaking about me I left it at that. I really don’t got a good relationship with Pimp but I know Bun [B]. And the thing I will say about Bun, even if dude don’t know that, is that Bun knew me before rap. I used to pick Bun up in my cars and ride him around when he lived in Atlanta and smoked with him, have him around me and my homies, so Bun know me. If you ask anybody about me, in any part of the world, I’m 100. Even out there in Houston, ni**as know me for real and I’ma leave it at that. Bun like my brother from another. We chop it up all the time, me and Pimp just ain’t have the relationship. AllHipHop.com: And you and Pimp C have done records together.Young Jeezy: Yeah, but you know even the little comment about the 60 thousand for a verse, man I did four verses for them dudes for free man. I sell millions of records. I f#### with real ni**as. It takes a real ni**a to know one so when a real ni**a reach out to you, you do what you do and you don’t trip on it. I didn’t real get it. Me personally, I think ni**as was getting way too emotional. If you a G, you’ll reach out. I got a phone, you got a phone, whatever, and you’ll holla like men. You don’t get in a magazine and say nothing crazy and think a ni**a ain’t going to take it personal. But at the end of the day, like he said, he wasn’t pertaining to me. I couldn’t really give a f### homie, because at the end of day man, I’m f###### amazing my ni**a. I’m good at what I do, but I was great at what I done, I’m the last m###########’ Mohican. Ain’t no ni**a walking this f###### earth fittin’ to tell me that I ain’t do what I said I did. I’m not even being mad about but it’s like when you grew up listening to ni**as, and you respect them, and you get out there and do everything they say they done, but better—and then you get to where you at and they don’t respect you, then f### it. It’s what it is. At the end of the day, I done it. I done it homie, I’m one of the best. I ain’t never seen none of these ni**as I rap with in the streets, ever. Never crossed paths with them, ever in my life. I know these ni**as from music. At the end of the day I did what I did and I’m here now and I’m blessed homie so I ain’t even trippin’ on that. That’s nothing to really glorify, that’s all I know. And I cater to the people who love what I do and that’s what I do. Real ni**as respect other ni**as craft and let other ni**as do what they do. My thing is sometimes you gotta let the younger ni**as eat though. For everybody wondering why it took me a minute to even speak on the s###, I been getting money man. I been busy chasing paper man, I ain’t got time to deal with no b#######. That’s the ni**a’s opinion man, that s###’s like an Escalade, everybody got one of them m############. AllHipHop.com: Have you read the interview in XXL with Pimp C?Young Jeezy: Yeah yeah, I read it. Cause my thing is…and I’m a say this, if the ni**a saying he ain’t talking about me, then I’m cool with that. I got love for Texas, I really do. I really been out there for real and I know what he talking and he 90% right. But, I wasn’t speaking on that at the time. I was speaking on what was going on with me. So if he took it the wrong way, the whole 17.5 thing, that’s what it is, though. But like I said, he said he wasn’t talking about me, so I left it at that. But in the magazine, when they put the s### in XXL, it was my name in big bold letters, I ain’t know how to take that. But if a ni**a call me his brother then that’s what he saying. My whole things is if we brothers we gon’ leave it at that. It can be everything or it can be nothing. But I’m a man, I’m a grown ass man, I’ma stand on my own ten at all times. I don’t take that well, especially when you got respect for ni**as, you feel me? My thing is, I ain’t got nothing to do with that. And I feel like he feel. That’s why I got in this game. There’s a lot of fake ass ni**as out here talking this s###. But you don’t just wake up and talk like this, you don’t just wake up and walk like this, ni**as don’t know about that s### being around it. My thing is you get in the XXL article and discuss prices. Like, you an OG, you ain’t supposed to that. You still got to show some type of rules and morals for the street, there’s still ni**as out here doing what they gotta do everyday to survive. It’s one thing to speak on it on records to motivate ni**as but when you get to talking about that s### in magazines, the feds read too. They’ll pay you some attention if you don’t get none from nowhere else. That ain’t being realistic. I would never disrespect the streets like that. Never in my life homie. I’m telling you, I stand here on God’s green’s earth, if I ain’t do it, it’s never been done. At the end of the day I would never disrespect the streets like that. I would never get in no magazine and discuss this and that and what it costs and all that. That might not be another ni**a’s program, at the end of the day you just putting the s### out there for the world to see. It’s one thing  to be you and do your craft and speak on it and do that, but if you an OG my ni**a you don’t do that. Everybody ain’t fortunate enough to get a rap check. But g####### it I am!The ni**a spoke on my homeboy and s### [Ed. Note: referring to Big Meech of BMF], and I’ma say this, that’s my ni**a, that’s my f###### heart and s### still real out here. So at the end of day ni**as gotta play by the rules. I’m not mad, because I can’t be. Cause you don’t get offended when a real ni**a straight in his business. My thing is, we gotta keep the morals to this s### and we can’t lose it by trying to g####### step on the next ni**a head. Sometimes you gotta let the young ni**as eat, cause I’m the same niIIa that was screaming free this ni**a when he was locked up. I’m the same ni**a that single handedly helped Bun get back on his feet when the s### was falling off out that way. I did several songs with Bun B, ya feel me?AllHipHop.com: It’s seems like it’s simply a disagreement in the numbers.Young Jeezy: A ni**a can have a pocket full of stones or a Navi full of squares my ni**a, but at the end of the day who the f### cares, we here. We made it. Only thing we can do is motivate the ni**as who’s still out there. F### the numbers, the numbers change everyday. You think I’m going to get into a dispute over some numbers? I could see if I was coming to shop with him, yeah. But other than that, come on man. If we brothers, you can disagree with your brother. What I really was p##### off about was the whole dissing the ATL thing. I’m a strong believer in when you meaning what you say, and say what you mean, that’s what you mean dog. So for some ni**as that f##### with y’all ni**as from the beginning, for you to say that it just made us feel a whole other way like, “G####### dog, what we doing?!” We support you. You take the rap game and look at the younger ni**as of today we collab. I f### with Buck, I f### with T.I.P, I f### with [Lil] Wayne, ni**as get money together, it ain’t about that, cause at the end of the day it’s a business. This ain’t gangland. If it’s like that all of us could have stayed in the streets. If it ain’t about the money, why we rapping for?  I can’t do you, I can only do me brother. At the end of the day I’m an adult, and on top of that ain’t nobody gave my s###. I came from the bottom, I came from nothing, and I’m staying here man. Every ni**a I know is either dead or in jail. When I see ni**as in the street that I used to know, [they] look at me like, Damn how the f### did you make it? And I tell him I believed and the big homie upstairs made it possible for me. AllHipHop.com: To be clear, has anyone from Pimp C’s gotten at you to try to resolve this?Young Jeezy: I ain’t trying to put the homie on blast, he tried to reach out and when I got that I was done with it. It’s like, man it’s already hard enough out here for us and ni**as gotta stick together. I gotta be blunt and this is my last time saying this; the man never said my name. A hit dog would holla. He ain’t hit me, so he wasn’t speaking to me, that s### went over my head. And you can quote when I say this, I feel like he feel. There’s a bunch of fake ass ni**as out here and I know how he feel, cause I see it. But them ain’t my charges and that ain’t my case. You quote me when I say that. Those are not my charges and that’s not my case bruh. AllHipHop.com: Sometime down the line would you be willing to speak to him? It ain’t even that serious bruh. At the end of the day I feel like he feel, I’d die about this s###. I die before I walk in the street and I feel like a ni**a played. Tell a n**a to bring the m###########’ yellow tape, the white chalk and a body bag my ni**a. I ain’t got no choice, what am I going back to? But at the end of the day it ain’t that serious and I know he feel the same way, cause he stand on what he speak on. F### all the dumb s###, let’s get money. And it ain’t me coppin’ no deuces, it ain’t me slowing down cause I damn sure ain’t no sucka. But at the end of the day what would you rather do? Would you rather get money or be on some dumb s###, about nothing. Cause if the beef was legitimate we wouldn’t even be doing this conversation. It would be on, like f### that. It ain’t no legitimate beef. It’s a ni**a with his opinion saying he was from out that way, and the prices ain’t, I can respect that. AllHipHop.com: You mentioned Big Meech, have you been able to communicate with him?Young Jeezy: I spoke with him actually. I tried to see him when I was out in Detroit. He’s good, holding his head high. It’s just going through the changes of life man but we all praying for him. Like I say man, I can’t express to you enough…I just take that to the heart when people speak on that man. That’s my brother, like, no b#######. Me and that man got a real relationship. That ni**a love me like his mama had me. I know his parents, I know his people, this ain’t no game. He’s just in a bad place right now. I shout him out every time I got a chance. But ya know, he got some things going on that I might not need to say nothing about. We’re going to leave that at that but that’s my ni**a, I love him to m############ death and I pray every night that they free that man cause he is a real, good, ni**a.AllHipHop.com: What do you say to the people that say all you do is talk about the streets, drug dealing and all types of negativity?Young Jeezy: That’s my point exactly. For all the criticism I get, I still keep it real. I’m an intelligent individual and a hell of a businessman but I keep it real to what I know. That’s all I know, that’s it, that’s all I can tell them, I don’t know nothing else. I been on my own since I was ten years old. I raised myself, I raised others around me, and at the end of the day that’s all I know. If a ni**a can’t accept that from me I can respect it bruh. At the end of the day, like I said, I am f###### amazing. I’m good at what I do, I’m great at what I’ve done, I’m the last Mohican.