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Thursday, December 14, 2006
Young Jeezy’s album release concert
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The commanding Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy released a new album Tuesday, and to celebrate the next night he held an invitation-only concert at the Tabernacle featuring ice sculptures and Lamborghinis. The album is called “The Inspiration,” and if showpieces like those don’t inspire you to quit your job and start rapping, it’s hard to imagine what would.
The show only ran for an hour — from 11 p.m. to midnight — but Jeezy accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. He played most of the best songs from his new album, revisited some cuts from his amazing 2005 record “Thug Motivation,” and held an intermission fashion show to promote his 8732 clothing line.
Although he’s not as dapper as fellow clothing entrepreneurs Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jay-Z, Jeezy is a striking man — thick in the chest, and with a swagger in his step — and it makes a surprising amount of sense that he’d find a business outlet through which to sell a look.
Anyway, back to the music. For most of the show, Jeezy had a full band behind him — a sax, a trumpet, guitar, bass drums, keyboards, the works. After the intermission, he rapped to a backing track. Both formats suited him fine. Although he had a few collaborators drop in, including the superproducer Timbaland, Jeezy was the clear star.
He had plenty of fresh material to choose from, including an existing hit from the new album (“I Luv It”), potential hits from the new album (“Go Getta” and “Dreamin’”) and some other new songs (like “Bury Me A G” and the Timbaland song “3 A.M.”) that have less radio potential but pack more punch.
In the context of this particular concert, the fashion show intermission did seem out of place — most rap do not set aside time for a stream of men to parade down a catwalk in polo shirts and jackets. But Jeezy picked things right back up afterwards, closing the show with “I Luv It” and, before that, the aptly named “Bottom of the Map,” a song that represents Jeezy’s local roots.
Before leaving the stage, Jeezy took a dig at his labelmate Nas, whose forthcoming album is called “Hip Hop Is Dead.” It’s not dead, Jeezy said, it just lives in the South.
That’s true, thanks in part to Jeezy himself.
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