Photo Courtesy of Island Def Jam
Last night Rapper Young Jeezy finally revealed his newest album’s title and release date. Jeezy’s long awaited follow up to 2011’s TM: 103’s Hustler’s Ambition will be called Seen It All and is set for a September 2nd release. As if that weren’t enough, Jeezy has released the title track off of the album and it features none other than the great Jay Z. This isn’t the first time the two have collaborated (“Go Crazy“, “I Do“, “Real As it Gets“) but it’s always great to see such talented artist drop beats together.
So how is the track? Pretty good. Jay’s involvement seems a bit too low key and generic at first, but after a few listens the reason for his involvement seems clear. Try as he might, Young Jeezy is still Rap’s 2005 rookie of the year who has yet to live up to his potential. Jeezy hasn’t seen it all. Jay-Z on the other hand has experienced enough for ten different rap careers. That’s why his longest, darkest stretch of the song drops lyrics like “Uncle died on the spot/ Pop killed the family with heroin shots (real shit) /Gave my life to the block /Figured I get shot least I die on top (real shit) /I came alive in the drop Big body all white shit looked like a yacht,/ real shit /I got ‘em five grand a pop.” Despite Jay-Z’s elevation to a pop culture icon, there’s still the sense that he remembers all too well his rough childhood in Brooklyn.
The song is a great teaser for what I to come, but if the Seen it All album is to be success it can’t rely solely on the title track. This may prove to be Young Jeezy’s true breakout or yet another mediocre effort in a decade long career of false start follow-ups. While that may sound a bit harsh (and it definitely is), “Seen it All” represents at the very least an intriguing collaboration between two artists who respect each other very much. We’ll just have to wait until September 2nd to see if the album lives up to the promise of its eponymous song. My hope it does because Jeezy deserves a lot more credit than he has now.
Check it out for yourself on iTunes