Young Jeezy - Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition Album Reviews & Song Lyrics

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Young Jeezy "Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition" album

- Release date : December 2011 -

Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition is the fourth studio album by American rapper Young Jeezy, released on December 20, 2011 through Corporate Thugz Enterainment, and Def Jam Recordings. The album had been delayed for nearly two years, missing several purported release dates which have all been denied by representatives from Def Jam Records; however, despite these setbacks, Young Jeezy himself has confirmed the album has definitely been completed. The album marks the third and final album in his Thug Motivation series, after Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101 (2005), and The Inspiration (2006).

"Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition" album tracks and lyrics

"Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition" album reviews

After releasing The Recession in 2008, Young Jeezy suffered his own three-year layoff due to legal problems and a fight with the crippling disease Bell's palsy. Add a paradigm shift in hip-hop radio, where the introspection of Drake and Kid Cudi found favor over Jeezy and T.I.'s extroverted pusher music, then top if off with a slew of missed released dates and the whole thing stinks of a setup, which is why any fond appreciation of TM:103 must come from the "warts and all" department. This unforgiving return to form doesn’t suffer from being over-thought and it’s not even overwrought, but it is overstuffed at 14 tracks (make that 18 for the deluxe version) and the most welcoming moments are pushed to the back (the "F.A.M.E."/"I Do"/"Higher Learning" sequence is like a trap music glitter dome with Jay-Z, André 3000, T.I., and Snoop Dogg all on the guest list). These minor complaints will matter little to returning fans as their needs are put first with the front half of album rolling like a steamroller fueled by grind-time anthems. Even the hack "game needs me"-styled opener is welcome as the rapper forces "Waiting" out of his hoarse throat like it was gravel, and after "What I Do" does something infectious and incredible with an economic hook and a Drumma Boy beat, the bold "OJ" comes along filled with iffy metaphors and a trailer load of controversy. The scattershot and irresponsible number is a red herring and kept a safe distance from the album’s true key track, "Trapped," where Jeezy and Jill Scott offer a crafted and complicated social statement, one that’s soulful and the worthy successor to "My President." What’s made Jeezy's evolution as an artist interesting is that this rebel without a cause sometimes finds one, and even when he's more Hulk than Bruce Banner, his changes are driven by emotion rather than something calculated. Here he's driven by the hunger to put things back where they were and live up to TM:103's official subtitle, Hustlerz Ambition, along with its unofficial one, Trap or Die Tryin'.

*** by David Jeffries, All Music Guide ***

Is there a hip-hop artist who cares less about artistry than Young Jeezy? Dazzling wordplay, unpredictable flow, tricky rhyme schemes – these are froofy, frivolous concerns to the Atlanta drug-dealer-turned-MC. "Bitch, I'm legendary/Bitch, I'm a living legend," he announces, with typical wordiness, on his long-awaited fourth LP. Blunt-edged lines like these have never been a problem for Jeezy – he's selling a vibe, not virtuosity. Narrating coke-trade exploits, exhorting his fellow hustlers ("Let's get it!") and settling into incantatory cadences like a warm bath, he rhymes with a luxuriously unhurried bravado that’s contagious.

Hip-hop has transformed in the three years since Jeezy's last album. Lil Wayne has returned daffy verbosity to the pop charts; Drake has opened new veins of emotiveness; and Rick Ross has taken Jeezy's spotlight, rapping about drug-trade hedonism with booming gravitas. How does Jeezy react to all this? Mostly, he ignores it.

Jeezy stays stubbornly true to form on TM:103, rapping with minimal embellishment about getting rich (and high), treating beautiful cars poorly and beautiful women worse. The beats, produced by Southern luminaries like Drumma Boy and J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, are full of imperious synthesizer pageantry, rumbling bass and frenetic percussion. No song would be out of place on his 2005 debut, where he con- jured a seamy world out of little more than a wheezing growl and vivid one-line vignettes about roach-infested kitchens and dirty cash bundled by rubber bands.

Jeezy's worldview has always been narrow, but here it borders on claustrophobic. "All we do is smoke and fuck," he chants on "All We Do." "Trapped" is about the impossibility of escaping the drug-game mentality. On the defiant "F.A.M.E.," in the closest he comes to a glimmer of introspection, he barks, "I wake up and feel empty." Just a hunch, Jeezy, but maybe the whole nothing-but-smoking-and-fucking policy isn't helping.

Introspection isn't Jeezy's trade; charisma is. That's why deeper, wordier thinkers like Jay-Z, Wayne, Fabolous and Andre 3000 all pay their respects on tracks like the brassy, upbeat "I Do" and the slinky "O.J.," about “killing that white bitch” – an off-color coke boast by way of Nicole Brown's corpse. Other metaphors don't quite come off: "You worse than Frito-Lay/Yeah, you no cheddar," he sneers. When Jeezy attempts snazzier turns of phrase like these, they can sound like they're penned in a foreign language and mangled by Google Translate.

He's better when he sticks to his native tongue – the street-cred-radiating plain-spokenness he calls "real talk." When he raps, on the opening "Waiting," "I made it this far, a fool with my foolish pride/Look at me, what you see, a fool in his foolish ride," you want to hop in the passenger seat. And whenever he delivers his signature drunk-uncle chuckle, "Ha haaa!" it's hard not to chuckle along with him.

*** by Jonah Weiner, Rolling Stone ***

Anyone familiar with any of Atlanta trap-rap icon Young Jeezy's prior Def Jam albums, starting with 2005's Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101, knows how this goes: The lyrics are largely ballsy statements about how "the Snowman" once shifted copious quantities of white powder on the streets, and now enjoys a luxurious lifestyle as a result. The beats flit between sparse, 808-heavy, synth-assisted productions — typified here by Drumma Boy's "What I Do (Just Like That)" and several tracks from Lil Lody — and occasionally more fleshed-out moments, the most persuasive this time being the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League's "Trapped" and "F.A.M.E.", the latter co-starring an out-of-the-chokey T.I. Still, there's a hint more depth to the project when Jeezy starts to embrace something close to a 2Pac martyr persona.

"Trapped" is the high point of this willingness to not just regurgitate the street-corner tales he's already told; it's a melodramatic redemption song that finds the rapper musing, "How I got here in the first place? / Oh, that's right, see, the trap was my birthplace." Throw in the lament "I've been cursed since the day my momma birthed me" and there's a sympathetic fatalism developing here — it's Jeezy against the world. (On "Everything," he even starts to refer to his own demise, vowing, "When I'm gone the whole world gonna know my name.") This thread isn't TM103's defining motif — the album's momentum is driven more by big-name guests (Lil Wayne on "Ballin'," Snoop on the weed-based "Higher Learning," and Jay-Z and Andre 3000 teaming up for "I Do"), and perked up with ridiculous brags like the time Jeezy "bought a Phantom just to take a nap" and the realization that he has "so many shoes I can't wear 'em." But it does suggest where he could go next, as both a songwriter and a public figure.

For now, Jeezy's still rooted to the street, content to boast about being a "superstar in my hood" and throw snide shots at his haters. When it comes to trap raps, he's coined and refined a slick, successful musical formula that TM103, easily maintains. But for his next manifesto, there's now reason to believe that might move on from motivating to leading.

*** by Phillip Mlynar, Spin Magazine ***

During the year-plus of delays that Young Jeezy’s Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition sat on the shelf and got reworked at the Def Jam offices, many rap fans and armchair A&Rs conspired that fellow Southern heavyweight Rick Ross had taken his place in the lane of trap rap. But further inspection proves otherwise: while Ross’ extravagant soundbeds embody the lavish life of rap’s shiny suit era, Jeezy has largely focused on inspiring his listeners to enjoy those riches aside him. On TM103’s strongest moments, the CTE leader continues his penchant for motivational speaking.

For the most part, Jeezy sticks to his tried and true formula. ”I’ve been through straight hell, so I can see street heaven,” he announces on the album-opening “Waiting,” and he spends the rest of the album navigating such waters with his constituency. Armed with more rumbling, triumphant backdrops from previous collaborators like J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League and Drumma Boy (plus a strong album appearance from new crew member Lil Jody, who produced five of the album’s 14 tracks), Jeezy’s throaty growl still sounds right at home while leading his troops through the ATL trenches. He doesn’t falsely boast about still standing on the corner, but he still identifies with them through common denominators of ‘dro, dames, struggle and work ethic. “What I Do (Just Like That)” ably fulfills street anthem requirements, the rags to riches tale of “Everythang” is just as motivational as any of Jeezy’s previous come-up anthems, and “Nothin” applauds listeners who survive through senseless violence in the hood.

Jeezy briefly ventures outside of his comfort zone, and the results are a pleasant surprise. “Trapped” utilizes a pensive J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League soundbed and a spoken word Jill Scott cameo to convey the cyclical nature of inner-city strife, resulting as one of Jeezy’s clearest signs of growth between albums. Meanwhile, “I Do” enlists Jay-Z and Andre3000 for the trio contemplate commitment after a lifetime of one-night stands and failed relationships. Despite the latter coming five songs after a record which chants “All we do is smoke and fuck” as the chorus, it still comes across as believable.

TM103’s change-ups occur with its abundance of guest features. While the songs remain solid throughout, several of the cameos end up being more memorable than its star player. This is an unnecessary move for a solo album that took so much time to drop. Despite Lil Jody’s multilayered soundbed and Jeezy’s tone-setting intro verse, “OJ” is highlighted by showstealing bars from Fabolous and Jadakiss. Cameos from Future and 2 Chainz leave “Way Too Gone” and “Supafreak” respectively to similar fate, but the sounds and vibes are still Jeezy-oriented enough to concede. The most egregious example is “Higher Learning,” which plays as any other rap album’s formulaic, requisite weed anthem with its Snoop Dogg and Devin The Dude assistance.

With the subtitle of Hustlerz Ambition, Jeezy’s latest album may have been as much of a call to arms for himself as it was to his listeners. Thankfully, he gives a worthy addition to the series and continues his reign as one of rap’s best.

*** by William E. Ketchum III, HipHopDX ***