Young Jeezy will forever be one of my favorite artists in rap. I have so many fond memories of thoseย Thug Motivation 101 days and just his whole โCanโt Ban the Snowmanโ movement. It was authentic and real, and he was always as much an inspirational speaker as he was a rapper. So long story short, Iโm always there for his projects even if his last couple have been a bit subpar.
โGot money to make, blow out the candles then cut up the cake
Then I put it on plate, Iโm running the game, you running in place
Still a younginโ at heart, but mentally, bitch Iโm a hunnidโ-and-eight
Like Pun in the late 90s, my niggas is juggling weight
Running from state to state, gun in the waist for safety
Iโm on a paper chase, whatever it takes to make me
A millionaire, silly cause how many really get there?
I mean, how many niggas is Jeezy?โ
Pressureโs announcement came out of nowhere but its tracklisting definitely had me excited. Boasting features from both J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar (on the same song), Puff Daddy, 2 Chainz, Rick Ross, and even up and comers like Kodak Black and Tee Grizzley, really showed just how much respect and clout he truly has in rap. A fact that he makes sure you know throughout the album, as he drops self-referential adjectives like โliving legendโ and โbossโ countless times. Itโs well deserved but itโs painfully obvious that as the years have gone by and heโs already talked about his early โstreetโ life to death, heโs started to run out of things to talk about, instead falling back on generic lines and subject matter. Heโs just not as interesting an orator as he once was. Butย Pressureย is still a very solid project thatโs worth checking out (especially if youโre a Jeezy fan) but it didnโt quite live up to the immense promise it had from its initial announcement. โBottles Upโ is hard and one of my favorite songs off the album but Puff Daddy only has a few background vocals (and not his best ones either), the J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar track didnโt quite deliver as much as Iโd hoped for, with only J. Cole really bringing it lyrically, and how โValetโ wasnโt a full-length song is beyond me! Outside of these, everything else was just โgoodโ โ a bit more generic than I was hoping for.
Have you heardย Pressure? Whatโd you think about it? Do you think Jeezy delivered on the tracklistingโs promise? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to let me know your own ratings and reactions to the album.
