There was a time in hip-hop history, a little more than ten years ago, when Jeezy was an up-and-comer, looking to the big dogs like Jay-Z and others for advice and inspiration. In the time since, he's blossomed into not only one of the most respected emcees even to come out of the ATL scene, but also into a savvy business man who has made his fortune more from his behind-the-scenes ventures than he has selling records. Now, Jeezy finds himself in the privileged position of being the rock that younger rappers count on for his expertise and wealth of knowledge about the industry in general. In a recent interview with Billboard, he revealed that he's not only been sharing some pearls of wisdom with the likes of Kodak Black, Tee Grizzley and Lil Durk, but also that his advice is always pretty straightforward.
When asked by the interviewer what he's told Tee Grizz and Durk in private conversation, the message has been simple. "There's a lot of things going on in the streets," Jeezy explained. "And if you wanna be here 10 years later, it has a lot to do with mind state. Whether they're looking for you to be like, 'Yo, let's go smoke some weed or go f**k some bitches,' I'm like, 'Nah, n***a. Look, y'all got some good things going on. I like the fact that y'all staying out of these cities right now until you're able to go and get back, but you gotta really be serious about that because you're one of us now.'" Apparently, the rap veteran has also given similar advice to Kodak Black.
"I talk to Kodak Black every other day," Jeezy continued, "and that's my advice to him; any advice he needs, because this is the streets." The Atlanta rapper went on to talk about how, even if you're physically "off the streets," consequences for dumb behavior could yield the same outcome in the music industry. "When getting out the streets and you get into the music industry, you gotta understand how that goes," he said. "You can still suffer the same consequences. Now you're a public person. People have the right to have an opinion, or they get the right to look at your past and say, 'Yeah, he is a criminal.'"
Do you think Jeezy's advice is solid? Let us know in the comments.