In September 2008, a hip-hop star from Georgia dropped an album that captured the uncooked feelings of a technology searching for change. Jay “Jeezy” Jenkins’s third album, The Recession, mixed the gritty Southern anthems he was identified for with the social commentary of a primetime information present. After two platinum albums and the co-sign of business heavyweights like JAY-Z, Jeezy turned a bonafide star. However a historic financial recession meant that many different People weren’t dwelling practically as properly. The housing bubble burst in 2008, resulting in numerous individuals shedding properties and property. In 2008 and 2009, 8.9 million People misplaced their jobs, the worst job contraction because the Nice Melancholy.
No stranger to struggles, Jeezy made a soundtrack for anybody attempting to see previous the tough realities of a recession. With songs just like the triumphant “Put On” and inspirational “My President Is Black,” he did simply that – and extra. Erik “Rook” Ortiz of the Grammy Award-winning manufacturing staff J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League remembers how targeted Jeezy was on making one thing to mirror present occasions. “Working with Jeezy in the studio at the time, he always had the news on, like the sound would be off but it would be on,” Rook says. “Something might flash on the screen and he would be like, ‘Yo, this is crazy. We’re about to have a Black president.’ He was really in tune with politics, with pop culture, and we just fed off of that energy.”
The facility of manufacturing
Like his collaborator JAY-Z, Jeezy has an ear for excellent manufacturing, and the checklist of producers he recruited for The Recession displays that. From Southern hitmakers like Drumma Boy to Grammy Award-winning producers J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, the musically wealthy sounds of The Recession helped make Jeezy’s inspirational message much more impactful.
Drumma Boy: “Jeezy always kept a solid foundation to the street, always trying to motivate his fans of the trap influence. I think his records got bigger and he always wanted to deliver something different. So an ‘Amazin’’ or ‘Put On,’ it was a different time period, just as far as delivery of music. I saw a growth as an actual person, from the actual trap, from the mindframe of a trapper to a businessman. And being able to witness that, ‘I’ma make sure I get Kanye, I’m going to get these particular artists, going to shoot my visuals like this,’ I feel like he knew exactly what he wanted to do and how he wanted to do it.”
Kevin “Colione” Crowe, J.U.S.T.I.C.E League: “I bear in mind working with Jeezy from the very starting earlier than his first album even got here out, when he was with Boyz N Da Hood, and when he was with Jazze Pha, that’s once we first began working with Jeezy. He got here into the studio and we did like 5 songs, and he confirmed us 5 songs he had completed, and a number of these information received leaked earlier than the album got here out means again within the day. I bear in mind we went to the shop and there it was proper there, somebody stated, ‘Do you want to buy Jeezy’s new album?’ and I used to be like ‘What?’ We get it and hear, certain sufficient there are information that leaked from Patchwerk Studios. Apparently an engineer in there leaked the information. This was 2005.
”We’d do all the things stay and herald all the things stay. That track ‘Don’t Get Caught,’ all the things on that track was stay. It was actually completely different. Jeezy cheered us on to go stay. He wished us to convey the entire devices within the studio to create music. He was doing such completely different music with different producers. I might hear songs from Shawty Redd after which Drumma Boy, and what they had been doing on the time with Jeezy was completely completely different from what he was doing with us. It’s not simply rap with him, he is aware of music and is aware of what he’s doing.”
Drumma Boy: “I simply bear in mind pulling up on Jeezy/ Jeezy was like, ‘I need another ‘plate.’’ I name my shit gumbo as a result of I put a lot completely different shit in it, like I’d put a pinch of salt, a pinch of nation, a pinch of entice, with just a little pinch of Memphis, with just a little pinch of Atlanta in that factor, just a little pinch of bass, some bounce, with just a little pinch of hi-hats, a lot shit you set in a pot that it’s good… sure eating places feed you a sure means and also you get fed and it sticks to you? You’re going to return. Arms down. With me and Jeezy, we name all the things we reference a plate, a meal. ‘Yo, what you got for me? I need a quarter piece. What you got for me? I need a nine-piece, I need a ten-piece. What’s up man? It’s time to eat. What you bought for me? What you cooking?’ All people actually appears at me like a chef. I’m an actual music chef. I cook dinner for the individuals and ship to individuals and so they preserve coming again for seconds, thirds. I need you to cater for this combine, I need you to cater for my wedding ceremony. That’s why I really feel like a chef, along with a therapist, to ship to the artist what’s wanted. I hearken to your combine, I hearken to your album after which are available in and slam dunk that shit together with your single.
With Jeezy’s musical tastes in thoughts, the varied producers labored to their strengths to create a complete album of anthems together with “Put On,” an enormous hit that turned a staple in each Jeezy and Drumma Boy’s catalogs.
Drumma Boy: “A lot of times I hear producers say, ‘How did you get that thing out of your head, how did you get that sound, that particular beat?’ and a lot of times, transferring what you have in your head into an actual score requires a little musicianship. It requires a little theory. Because you can hear something, but being able to play those notes, those chords and transferring it into a masterpiece as big as you want it to be, as opposed to a bunch of one note chords. It’s like a seven key chord or a diminished chord that might pull that feeling out as opposed to one note. To me, some producers are not really capable of that and some are better than others, so if you’re not capable, just hire a keyboard player. Hire the church keyboard player, and now you have to share some of your publishing up front, but at least you are getting that business side as well as that musical side, and creating that sound you want. In my instance, I was capable of doing this myself. I remember listening to warm-up music. I used to always love when they would turn up the lights in the Chicago Bulls stadium. I’m going to make ‘Put On For My City’ like that. Not the same beat, I’m going to create my own melody. If you listen to ‘Put On,’ it reminds you of that Chicago Bulls anthem. The lights cut off when this shit comes on. I did ‘Ambitionz’ and ‘Amazin’’ right after ‘Put On.’”
Erik “Rook” Ortiz, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League: “We heard ‘Put On’ for the first time without Kanye’s verse and it was already crazy.”
Drumma Boy: “I gave Jeezy the beat so I never even heard ‘Put On’ until it came out on the radio. I didn’t know he was going to get Kanye, and this was like the first time we heard Kanye with auto-tune, the first time you heard Kanye on a down South beat. Kanye on some trap shit. So for me, to be able to deliver that to the people first. That shit was classic man.”
Rook: “I remember just listening to all of the songs [Jeezy] was making, like Drumma Boy’s ‘Put On.’ Every time I see Drumma Boy I’m like, ‘I wish we did that fucking track! [Laughs] That shit was a fucking game changer.”
Like Drumma Boy, manufacturing staff J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League had labored alongside Jeezy since his first album and made certain their contributions for “Word Play” and the bonus monitor “Done It” met his excessive requirements.
Rook: “I think he always looked at us as the ‘meat and potatoes’ in terms of sound. He was always impressed that we used the live instruments and all that but we could always switch it up and do the trap shit and all of that too. He was always impressed by our diversity. He would call us and be like, ‘I got this idea for a flute, I got an idea for a saxophone’ and he knows he could call us up and we can get it done.”
Colione: “The sound we come out with [working] with Jeezy is a classic sound. He never really turned to us for trap music, he turned to us for something different. The track ‘Fame’ he did with T.I. was so different that you wouldn’t even think Jeezy would use that music. He took a chance with us to do different things.”
Rook: “I remember that being the first time being in the studio with Jeezy that we had string players come in. It was funny because we had the sheet music and the original title was ‘Bird Play,’ and it was funny to have the sheet music and it said ‘Bird Play’ on top. We had the lyrics in there on the sheet music and we see all of the gangsta lyrics on the sheet music. Everything we’ve done with Jeezy was on the spot. We didn’t play beats, we just did everything from scratch on the spot.”
Colione: “You never know what you can learn from someone coming up, because everyone has different ways of creating. Our mentality of thinking is that it’s a joint effort, so these younger producers look like geniuses in terms of the game. I think it’s our duty to set standards and raise the bar higher in music. We do sound creation and we do different things for up-and-coming producers.”
Rook: “I remember back in the day it wasn’t really big on collaboration. Producers didn’t really collab much. Back in the day, Neptunes, that was a Neptunes beat, Timbaland, that was a Timbaland beat. Dre, that was a Dr. Dre beat. Dre had some things, like Daz but it would usually be one person. Nowadays, you’ll hear a track and it’ll be multiple people on there. Different people did the melody, different people did the drums. Now I look at the list of credits and it’s pretty large. Some of the hits now have at least five producers on there. It’s like how songwriting used to be, where songs would have five writers but now it’s like both ways.”
Rook: “We all know music evolves and sound evolves, so we’re undoubtedly all about staying related and staying within the recreation, which is type of cool as a result of we’ve been round a very long time and we’re nonetheless related. [Laughs]
As a DJ and A&R – who later turned VP of A&R at Def Jam Recordings – longtime Jeezy collaborator and Philadelphia native Don Cannon supplied the perception to assist The Recession transfer from idea to execution.
Don Cannon: “Often when me and Jeezy come collectively, it’s an total look. It’s not simply Jeezy coming to me for a beat. We simply sit down and say, ‘What space are we going to attack on this record? What is hurting us in the hood, what is hurting us in music? How can we develop these?’ The entire spirit of what we began was motivation. I feel that motivational interval was like, ‘Let’s not be unhappy about it. Let’s uplift the individuals to maintain combating and getting at what they do, and with the ability to preserve that aggression within the music with the beats and devices that make you wish to train throughout the recession by the dangerous occasions. That’s what we had been concentrating on.
”That was our thought course of, and thru my digging of information and discovering completely different beats for him from different producers as properly, I feel my accountability was to set the tone for the album and I set the tone with ‘Circulate,’ as a result of it hit the nail proper on the pinnacle once we had been speaking about what was happening. We had been making extra money flow into. After we did that document, we moved round and noticed completely different items of information come collectively, like ‘Crazy World’ and ‘Welcome Back.’ There have been all superhero-sounding information, you already know? That was just about the place we had been coming from with it.
”Philly Worldwide and Curtis Mayfield had been two locations the place I absorbed soulful vitality. I am going to these locations to get that bone-chilling really feel with the message nonetheless. And Curtis Mayfield, should you’ve ever listened to any of his music, it was a number of uplifting in his music. Philly Worldwide did a number of information the place there’s some uplifting messages. I really feel such as you should know and have to check your sampling if you wish to get to these subjects. It’s loopy as a result of halfway of me making the beat, I heard different individuals’s renditions of it. I heard Jay Dilla’s rendition of it. However it was him talking as a rapper and producer and I don’t understand how many individuals observed that. It wasn’t left open for a rapper to be on that beat, you already know what I imply?
”My job as an artist was to determine learn how to make that work, and make it in a position to be rapped on. I performed the precise [‘Circulate’] pattern (Billy Paul, ‘Let The Dollars Circulate’) for Jeezy and there have been issues lacking. I wished stay devices, so I needed to name in sure individuals as a result of I wished to really feel like Robin Hood from the hood from his perspective, and from my perspective, I wished to really feel like I used to be the marching band behind the superhero that’s saving the world. Philly was identified for lots of stay instrumentation, it was identified for soul. Halfway after we had been doing the document, doing publish manufacturing, that’s when the Philly facet got here out and it was loopy that I used to be ready to return dwelling and get that out.
”Folks all the time say by no means give your system away however I don’t thoughts it as a result of it’s wanted. I watched TV within the ‘90s and I listened to music back in the day, there was one thing they both have in common: you can watch The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and get a message out of something being funny. It wasn’t so harsh that it made you depressed to get the message. The identical factor with music: Public Enemy had ‘911 Is A Joke,’ ‘Shut ‘Em Down,’ and ‘Bring The Noise,’ however there have been nonetheless in celebration model. You would go to a membership in these days and listen to ‘911 Is A Joke’ and it was like Taste Flav was lighting it up with the message nonetheless.
”Once we’re making these messages, it shouldn’t make individuals upset and put them in a distinct house of their life. There are enjoyable individuals that also want messages. There are activists that also want enjoyable of their messages. I really feel like once we had been making that album, I wished it to be enjoyable, so whenever you hear the beats – they’re not depressed, you hear the messages and the way we’re getting it throughout. Even with ‘Circulate,’ whenever you begin off the document, he says, ‘I’ma begin off so-so, they love me in DC identical to go-go.’ That’s simply him stepping into the concept of, ‘Let’s celebration at times we are able to get into the message.’ I really feel like that’s wanted in music immediately. It’s so one-sided whenever you say, ‘Oh, he’s a acutely aware rapper.’ I really feel like that’s the mistaken factor to say about an artist now, as a result of acutely aware may be enjoyable. Generally we’ve got to convey the enjoyable into being acutely aware.”
From the entice to The White Home
One track on The Recession had an added stage of relevance: “My President Is Black,” that includes a particular visitor verse from legendary rapper Nas with manufacturing by Tha Bizness. “My President Is Black” turned synonymous with Barack Obama, the 2008 Black presidential candidate who captured the hearts in a means that maybe no presidential candidate had because the late John F. Kennedy. Obama would finally grow to be the forty fourth president of the US and the primary Black president in American historical past.
Justin “Henny” Henderson: “We had completed a number of stuff once we lived in LA. Again then, I had simply gotten married and I wished to maneuver to Atlanta to get property and get a brand new change of tempo as a result of we had been dwelling out in LA for the previous 5 or 6 years. On the similar time, we had already completed a take care of G-Unit, however the stuff we did with 50 Cent and G-Unit, the entire Unit was simply type of simmering. We got here to Atlanta and actually needed to begin studying learn how to get by the 808 entice bass sound. So we hit the golf equipment to attempt to perceive the sonics of what made individuals love the music. Coming from the West Coast, we had a distinct kind of bounce.
”My man Dow [Jones, production partner] was in a number of classes hooking up with cats just like the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League and we received the possibility to satisfy up with Jeezy and play him some tracks. Once we performed him some tracks, he was very stunned as a result of he thought we had been principally G-Unit producers and would have that New York sound as a result of that’s what he heard from us. He stated, ‘Put these in a folder and I’ll get again to y’all.’ That was most likely early 2008. From there, he known as us in about June 2008 and he informed us that we wanted to carry this monitor as a result of he was about to get Nas on this document that may be loopy for his album and we simply held it.
“To be completely transparent, we were working with R. Kelly at the time. We did a deal with R. Kelly to do some music for an album that he was coming out with called 12 Play 4th Quarter. Never came out. It leaked online but it never came out. We were excited about that and had the first single called ‘Hair Braider.’ We started making a bunch of tracks for that project and one of those tracks was the track we did for ‘My President.’ It was just very sonically dope and it was crazy because at the same time we did some things for Lil Wayne that ended up the same way. Climate-wise, just politically what was going on, the possibility of having the first Black president was an amazing thing that was brewing around the city. But we had no idea that it would become the urban theme song for the president. It took on a mind of its own. We were just really creating to be real. We had no idea what was going to happen.”
Rook, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League: “Lyrically, Jeezy was on some shit. It was inspirational as fuck. The Recession was a commentary on what was going on at the time, especially seeing the end of the Bush era going into the Obama era. It was real street commentary.”
Colione, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League: “Jeezy is a legacy act. To me, when he came out with TM101, that shit to me was like The Chronic of the South, he’s talking about what’s going on, he’s really looking for a change, too. He’s actually looking for a positive scenario out of what was going on. With The Recession, he was saying what people needed to hear, especially with the people he focuses his music on.”
Henny: “Folks have requested what are a few of my proudest information I’ve completed in my profession to this point, and I all the time return to that document. You consider life and you consider the moments and you may hear when a track got here on or when a track made a lot impression in your life. I simply bear in mind being at my brother’s home we had been throughout there watching the recording, filming the second of Barack turning into president. Once I let you know when CNN stated, ‘Now projecting Barack Obama, the 44th president!’ All people misplaced their thoughts.
“Around the entire community we just heard the music of ‘My President’ being played. You start driving around Peachtree [in Atlanta] and everybody is just cheering and excited and everyone was playing the song. “We got excited and said, ‘We’re going to the inauguration.’”Earlier than the inauguration, we went to Membership Love in D.C. simply to kick it, not understanding Jeezy was going to convey out JAY-Z to do the remix stay there for the primary time. I’m standing within the crowd and swiftly Jeezy brings JAY-Z out to carry out the remix. My thoughts is simply blown as a result of I’m within the crowd and didn’t even know that they had been there. You discuss moments the place you’re rushed into an entire different factor, and JAY-Z turned the featured remix on the track. It simply took on a thoughts of its personal.
“When I was 18, my father was big in the political scene in Seattle where we’re from, and they had this big initiative to abolish Affirmative Action in Seattle. He was telling me when I first getting started making beats for my group in high school, he said, ‘You guys need to write this song so you can help stop the abolishment of affirmative action in Seattle.’ That song went from some song we did in our basement to the NAACP flying us out to perform to give notice to the youth about going out and voting. To think, 10 years later is the time I’m helping the entire nation be inspired with a record, it’s been part of my journey the entire time. It’s weird to think about it now because this is the first time I’ve really said that out in a story form, but I think it’s been there all along – through my Dad trying to really let me know my message and that music can go beyond just the club hits.”
Life after a recession
From its manufacturing to its message, The Recession continues to captivate listeners 10 years later. Producer and A&R Don Cannon famous that working with Jeezy on The Recession modified how he appears at traditional information. “You go to Coachella and you hear how these records like [Lil’ Uzi Vert’s] ‘Sauce It Up’ or ‘XO Tour Life’ change lives, change the world, and it starts changing your thinking on what a classic record is,” he says. “Making [The Recession] with Jeezy helped me turn around my thought process.” Few tasks in current historical past have mixed the uncooked vitality of the streets and an clever evaluation of nationwide politics in opposition to a backdrop of lush, stirring music.
Drumma Boy: “Seeing guys reduce on jewellery, seeing guys focus extra on household, I feel it was a number of humble creation concerned in The Recession. It was an analysis of the present occasions, but it surely was additionally like – shit, for most people within the music business, we couldn’t inform it was a recession. So, the mentality of making ready and being extra disciplined kicked in, however we nonetheless did what we wished to do. It was about being strategic. Versus me balling out within the membership and spending my very own cash – $3 to 4,000 {dollars} for 15 to twenty bottles, I’m making the membership pay for that shit. If you’d like me within the membership, you bought to provide me 15 to twenty bottles. It’s nonetheless supplying you with the look, however you’re being a wiser businessman since you’re asking, ‘How can I get the same look without buying 15 to 20 bottles with my money?’
”It was a time when it was like [Sings Drake lyrics] “We got money to blow, getting it in, letting these bills fly.” So how do you retain that very same look with out blowing your individual cash? As a result of should you’re blowing your individual cash, you’re going broke. The common cat ain’t Drake. Everybody listens to the No. 1 rapper and needs to have their way of life, however it’s important to be life like with your self, as a result of I’ve seen a number of n—-s working out of cash. It’s about being good at that time limit. That’s one factor that in the course of the recession, all of us took into consideration our dangerous occasions however understanding learn how to have that look, be efficient, and never spend as a lot of your individual cash. So it’s about O.P.M. – different individuals’s cash.”
Don Cannon: “When Jeezy came and added some aggression and made you want to change different parts of the song, do different things with the 808s, make the hi-hats more intricate, I think that plays a lot into the level of trap music that’s being made today. Back then, it was a four-bar loop or a straight hi-hat and one 808 with one tone. Now you have people playing 808’s like pianos in so many different octaves and tones. The same thing with snares, there was a basic TR-808 clap/snare. We’ve changed those and through ears, we’ve trained people to have more than one snare – there’s 10 classic trap snares that you can use that everyone uses today. That’s with the help of Shawty Redd and Drumma Boy and people like that. With the album that we did, we transformed the basic trap into what’s the next level of trap now, and that’s really important.”
Henny: “For us, it was an exciting time and it wasn’t a depressing time because when the markets crashed, the housing became so affordable. You could get houses down here in Atlanta for cheap. That was one of the reasons we moved, to get a new kind of life as opposed to living in these super expensive apartments in LA. It was a time of motivation. It was a time of taking your career to that next step. For us, it was how do we create this sound that will be synonymous not just with what we did in LA but with Atlanta culture, with the Atlanta music scene, and really make sure we weren’t just some West Coast cats trying to perpetrate Southern music. We really got in and really built great relationships with people like DJ Toomp, the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, people like Fatboi, a lot of guys who were here in Atlanta making waves in the music scene and really just understanding the sonics of Southern hip-hop music. It was an exciting time for us, to be honest.”
Colione: “I actually wished to be part of [The Recession]. Jeezy was on the peak of his profession, I used to be like, ‘I got to do whatever it takes.’ We’ve got a chemistry with Jeezy. Our chemistry with Jeezy goes means again, like careers beginning for him and us on the similar time. Jeezy is an actual onerous employee, he’ll have you ever within the studio 24 hours a day. He’s one of many hardest employees I’ve ever seen. Through the years we’ve constructed an incredible catalog with him and have been blessed to be part of some traditional albums. ‘The Recession is considered one of my favourite albums of all time.
Store for Younger Jeezy’s music on vinyl or CD now.
Editor’s be aware: This text was initially revealed in 2018.
