Day: September 1, 2015

Last month, we celebrated the 10 year anniversary of Young Jeezy’s major label debut album, the coke rap classic, Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101. In our Making of piece, we talked to Jeezy, and many others, about the many wild stories behind how the album came together—including how real money ended up on the album cover. Today, in the latest episode of Complex’s Magnum Opus series, we hone in on one song in particular, the Akon assisted “Soul Survivor.” The song is more than just Jeezy’s biggest hit ever; it’s the song that turned Jeezy from a regional star who had the streets on lock into a national star who could get radio play anywhere in the country, it’s the song that helped TM 101 become a platinum album, and it’s the song that helped set up Akon’s career so he could become one of hip-hop’s great hook masters. For this episode, of course we had to talk to Jeezy about how the Akon collaboration came about, how he thought the song would ruin his career, and how he felt like he had made it when he shot the music video. We also spoke with Jeezy’s long time producer, Shawty Redd about how he and Jeezy crafted the trap music sound together as Jeezy rose through the independent scene. Meanwhile, DJ Drama details the impact of his mixtapes with Jeezy, Streets Is Watching and Trap or Die, and how they set the streets on fire. Although Akon had agreed