The rap icon who was ready to brawl to protect Jeezy
Atlanta rapper Jeezy also known as Young Jeezy, was a big name in Southern hip-hop during the 2000s who came to prominence as the frontman of the Bad Boy Entertainment rap group Boyz n Da Hood.
Prior to joining Boyz N Da Hood, Jeezy was part of an Atlanta Crip gang where he met Kinky B, who helped him jumpstart his career. In 2001, Jeezy released an independent project entitled Thuggin’ Under the Influence, which featured several features and tracks produced by the Godfather of Crunk Lil Jon.
Jeezy’s independent projects, like his double-disc album Come Shop Wit Me, did exceptionally well in the South and boosted the rapper into stardom. Following his split from Boyz n Da Hood, Jeezy pursued a solo career and released his major label debut, Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101, which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, certifying Jeezy as a prominent artist.
Since his arrival, Jeezy has worked with the likes of Lil Wayne, Rihanna, Kanye West, and others. However, one industry friendship the Atlanta native formed that has lasted for over a decade and become a strong bond is with Brooklyn legend Jay-Z.
Over the years, the two MCs have worked together, and their friendship has endured. Their most notable collaboration was on the 2005 remix of Jeezy’s track ‘Go Crazy’. However, despite having made music together during an interview with TV One’s Uncensored, the Trap Or Die creator revealed the pair rarely speak about music and detailed how their friendship is built on mutual respect.
Speaking about their endless similarities, Jeezy explained, “We both have old souls, and we both came from the same struggle. But the only thing is, his struggle started before mine, he started walking his path before me, so I have to look at somebody like that how I would look at somebody in the hood who was already getting money before I was. I was like, ‘How you do this and stay out [of prison]?’”
Emphasising how connected they are and the amount of respect they have for one another, Jeezy admitted that Jay once prepared himself to get into a fight just to back him up during an argument.
That said, the ‘Soul Survivor’ recalled a time in Las Vegas when he saw Jay-Z stand up for him. Jeezy began, “A lot of people don’t know. We’ve been in some fistfights and everything!”
He continued, “Some things popped off in Vegas — God bless the dead, Shakir Stewart, my brother — and I gotta say, Hov got hands. ‘Cause me and him was getting down! Back-to-back, you know what I mean?!”
Jeezy said that the loyalty made him know he was real, adding, “I heard his assistant say, ‘Jay, get in the car!’ He was like, ‘I ain’t leaving Jeezy!’ I was like, ‘Yo, I rock with him.’” The Las Vegas fight wasn’t the only time the pair got close. The Atlanta rapper also told Uncensored about a time in the early 2000s when he had issues with his record label; Jay-Z reached out to him and invited him to talk about his troubles.
The emcee recalled, “Right around the time we went on tour together, I had an incident. It happened with my whole crew getting locked up. So for the rest of the tour, I was coming to do my show by myself. I had no stage manager, I had no manager, I had no nothing! It was just me. But he was like, ‘Yo, you need to talk?’ He did that a few times.”
He concluded, “When I had some things going on in the street when everybody got indicted, the label turned their back on me; they wouldn’t pick up my calls. And Hov called me like, ‘Yo, you need to talk? Come to my office,’” he continued. “Of course, I can’t say what he said, but I just walked out of there like, ‘That’s why I really rock with him.’”