He's what you want; he's what you need. Everyone from Shawty Lo to Mariah Carey is hooking up with Young Jeezy, who's ending his brief hiatus and making a concerted effort to heat himself up.
What started as Jeezy jumping on a couple of songs for the streets has turned into a journey that led to a #1 single: Usher's "Love in This Club."
"It was a combination of a lot of things," he said about the record, which went from #51 to the top spot on Billboard's Hot 100 recently. "Me and [producer] Polow [Da Don] was about to work. Me and Ush cool anyway. So when I heard the record, I wanted a beat like that. Polow was like, 'You like the song?' I was like, 'Yeah, let me put something on it.' "
Jeezy said he didn't hesitate to get on the song, despite the song's content. Gangstas don't dance, they boogie — and they certainly don't do the wild thing in public.
"It was a twist, because it was talking about making love in the club," he said. "I'm a G. I don't do stuff like that. 'How are people gonna look at me when I step outside [the box]?' So I just did me on the song. I don't get a chance to talk to the ladies a lot. If I had a chance to talk to them, that's what I would say: 'I'm what you want; I'm what you need.' ... At the same time, I never thought it would be the type of record it was, [that] everybody would respect it the way it was. Me and Ush talked about it [being] crazy. You could put those two type of elements together and still make sense. It ain't taking nothing away from nobody.
"I'mma tell you the craziest sh--," he continued about the first time he heard the complete record. "The same night they leaked the record, or however it got out, I'm in [Atlanta strip club] Platinum 21. I might have heard the song 15 times. Keep in mind, I don't have a copy of the song. I'm sitting in the corner like, 'Damn!' I'm in the strip club, they playing the song, and everybody loved it. Just to see it, it was like you can do records like that and still be you."
The Snowman told MTV News that he's just enjoying himself, and chances are, he probably won't charge for a guest spot. If he likes the song, he'll jump on it. His third album is on the way. He's not giving any titles or release dates but promises it will come "sooner than you think."
"I live like I'm still out in the streets," he said. "That's how I cater my music. On my third album, those people [who bought my first two albums] grew with me. I gotta address the subjects and topics they're dealing with now after four years. You don't wanna go back and try to do the first album. Why would you try to do that? That was then. They growing with you. That's how people mess up: They try to be younger. Nah, man. Do you. The people are growing with you."
Jeezy recently jumped on Lil Wayne's "Lollipop," making an unofficial remix. In addition to Jeezy's appearance on the new Mariah Carey song "Side Effects," there are also remixes of Shawty Lo's "Dey Know," Rocko's "Umma Do Me" and The-Dream's "I Luv Your Girl."
