Artist Playlists
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Gruff-voiced, low-key, and studiously about that paper, Jeezy is one of the formative figures in trap. A hustler, yes, and a banger, and if you believe his grimly funny punch lines, the kind of guy who loves his gun so much he takes it to the bathroom (as the man himself might say, yeahhhhhhh). But the Atlanta street legend’s best tracks aren’t just tough, they’re soulful and uplifting, the kind of ghetto confessionals that situate his shadowy dealings alongside sharp observations about the prison system, drug sentencing laws, and race in America. Forgive him—he’s so emotional, he hugs the block (aye!). Here’s the best of the Snowman. - Jeezy was a crucial force in taking trap music from the clubs of Atlanta to the top of the pop charts, and his sound echoes throughout many prominent voices of '10s hip-hop. His slack flow comes through in the laidback ad-libbing of MCs like Playboi Carti and Chief Keef, while his decadent tales of street life inspire O.T. Genasis' drug-obsessed anthems and Kendrick Lamar's self-aware hood poetics.
- Jeezy staked his claim as a trap storyteller and, in the deeper corners of his catalog, he builds upon that skillset. He still uses his siren-like voice and ad-libs to pepper tracks, but he can also bend his flow around the soul samples on “Beautiful” and “Sweet Life.” And while he doesn’t abandon boastful tales of Southern excess, on “Win Is a Win,” he trades paranoid tales of its pitfalls for delighting in what comes after making it out.
- He's one of the pioneers of Atlanta trap music, but Jeezy's gritty tales of street life have roots in UGK's swaggering storytelling (“Pocket Full of Stones”) and Three 6 Mafia's shadowy club crushers (“Who Run It”). But it's not just the South that inspired him: Hustler anthems like Biggie's “Ten Crack Commandments” and Ice Cube's “Pushin' Weight” are reflected in his money-making flows.