Young Jeezy was born Jay Jenkins, but nobody really knows where.
Sometimes it is said to be Charleston, South Carolina, other times North
Carolina, and other times Hawkinsville, Georgia. With strong ties to
Atlanta, the only thing certain is that Young Jeezy hails from the
south, survived the streets with little schooling, entered the rap scene
with the intent of being a businessman, but started rapping himself, and
built a large underground following and was heavily into hustling
mixtapes before going commercial. His independent debut, in 2003, was
"Come Shop Wit' Me". A member of the quartet, Boyz N Da Hood, the band
released their debut self-titled album in the summer of 2005 (June)
which eventually went to #5 on the Billboard albums chart. One month
later, he released his debut solo album, "Let"s Get It: Thug Motivation
101." [Def Jam]. It came in at #2 and was a hot seller in its first
week.
Young Jeezy has alternated as a collaborator and a featured artist with
the likes of Jay-Z, Akon, Fat Joe, and Juelz Santana. Moving into the
commercial field, he used his nickname, Snowman, as trademark on
T-Shirts, though it was banned from schools because of alleged ties to
the drug scene. A hustler all his life, Young Jeezy often gets negative
press, from personal problems, to criminal associations with
out-of-state groups, but his determination remains strong and his
artistic projects are hot commodities. Inking a label deal with Def
Jam, heavily involved in video promos and hustling singles from the
first album, Young Jeezy (sometimes misspelled, Young Jezzy) is writing
his future one day at a time, as he tries to restore some of the morals
back into the game and avoid the pitfalls of heavy commercialization.
