Now in the game for over ten years, Jeezy has seen a lot of change in the Atlanta music scene over the course of his career. It's found him befriending both the veterans of the regional rap scene as well as the newcomers, so the passing of both Shawty Lo and Bankroll Fresh this year was a hard thing to witness.
In our new cover story with Jeezy, he explains how his "All There" collaboration with Bankroll Fresh came together. "D Rich and Bankroll were the closest thing to me and Shawty Redd that I’ve ever seen," Jeezy said of Bankroll and his in-house producer. "When I saw what D Rich and Bankroll was doing, maybe a week before he passed, I asked them to come sit down so I could mentor them and help them get that shit to the next level. It’s sad to say but a week after that he passed."
Jeezy made a point of using the video for the song as a very personal tribute to Fresh. "When you see the video, just know that that’s his hood, that’s his family, that’s his nephew in the video, that’s his son. That’s his mother, grandmothers, those are his friends. Those are his artists. I just wanted to go over there and give them a real blessing. We love them. And we love what he did for his culture. I’m quite sure that if he was here now, he’d be proud."
While there was talk of shutting down the shoot for the day when it began to rain, Jeezy chose to push on, seeing the weather conditions as a symbolic force. "I feel like these tears of joy," he said. "Cause this is all his people. This is a celebration for him. If it continues to rain, we gon still shoot in the rain. So we shot in the rain. When we was done shooting, it stopped raining. Craziest shit ever."
Shawty Lo was at a very different point in his career when he was involved in a single car collision that ended his life, but the city has honored him very similarly. "I was in a spot the other night, and they played a Shawty Lo song, and I just saw people rejoicing,” he recalls. "For whatever it’s worth, it was worth it for him to put in all the work he did, even though it was before his time. ‘Cause they live on forever through their music."
Jeezy actually knew Shawty from before he began his career in music. "It was crazy cause I knew Shawty Lo way before I knew he rapped. We did a couple things in the streets together, and that’s how I met him," he said, before suggesting that he took Lo's death as a wake up call. "I’m grown but where we come from we don’t say we love each other. But I aint got no problem telling my homies that now. I love you nigga, be safe. Cause you just never know.But I aint got no problem telling my homies that now. I love you nigga, be safe. Cause you just never know."
Watch the full interview with Jeezy below and read our cover story here.