| April 1, 2020 | Michael Foster-Sanders | feature editor |
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Jeezy returns after retirement and proves he’s the king of trap music
with a surprise release with long-time collaborator Shawty Redd.
Young Jeezy and Gram- my-nominated producer Shawty Redd created trap music in 2004 despite what the revisionists of Southern hip-hop history may claim. From the heavy 808 drums with deep bass, crisp snares and horror movie-style sound beds, one can hear the genre’s DNA all over music today.
Sadly, the trap sub-genre has been bastardized and picked apart by copycat producers and rappers, who didn’t further the genre, as well as by culture vultures from other genres who labeled anything that contained the elements that were mentioned above. Country trap? What the hell is that?
Sixteen years later, The Snowman comes back to declare his throne with the seven-song, 17-minute EP “Twenty/20 Pyrex Vision,” but is it too late for this guerrilla warfare effort?
No, it isn’t.
Jeezy comes out swinging like a boxer who has to land a knockout to win with the first track “Twenty/20 Pyrex Vision.” Shawty Redd crafts a score for Jeezy that is so evil and foreboding that Michael Myers would be proud to have it in a “Halloween” movie.
Jeezy does what he does best: talking about money and about what kind of power having money brings, being a young black man in America playing a game that’s not designed for them to win by dealing drugs.
The theme behind this album is to show people who participate in the illegal drug trade can apply those ill-gotten skills and use them to become legitimate businessmen who build up the community while creating generational wealth.
He preaches this on the track “Billions” with the hook “Oprah got a billion, Puff got a billion, Hov got a billion. Y’all can chase these girls, I just want a billion. Y’all can buy these clothes, I just want a billion.”
The highlight of the album is the song “Keep Going,” which Jeezy channels the ghost of his drug-dealing braggadocious past but talks about the money he’s making from real estate and his Avion liquor instead of cocaine. The song promises to be on every playlist this summer.
The only issue this EP has is it may sound dated to those whose music attention span is determined by what the radio deems as good music. It could not have been released at a worse time. These songs are meant to be played in the car, or at the club with booming sound systems that will immerse the listener into the Tundra of The Snowman.
Welcome back to the throne, Jeezy.
