With his seventh album, Seen It All: The Autobiography, released today, Jeezy spoke at length with The Breakfast Club for the radio show’s first live airing from Atlanta, Georgia. Detailing the nature of the album as well as his recent arrest for allegedly possessing an AK-47 assault rifle, Jeezy began by explaining the delay in his posting bail.
“If ya’ll really wanna know, I’m a real one,” he said when asked about the length of time it took to post bail. “Whatever happened, they detained my bus driver—two of my bus drivers, one was a 50-something-year old lady—my cameraman. I’m just such a real person, I know we was there to the right. I just couldn’t leave’em in there. When I stepped in the door I had bailsman right there to get me out. I just made it clear, when I leave, we leaving together. Point blank. Period.”
Asked about the amount of bail he posted, Jeezy offered that the dollar amount is public record. “That’s public information,” he said. “It was some bread.”
“At the end of the day, real talk, you go through things in life,” he added. “That’s just what that was. It’s only money, but it was more so about the principle to me. I wasn’t leaving no man behind, I don’t care how it went down. We could’ve sat in there [however] long…When this is all said and done—I don’t wanna get into the investigation ‘cause that’s what’s going on—I’m confident that you will see that nor me or anybody that was a part of my crew had anything to do with anything. Real talk.”
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During the interview Jeezy also divulged the status of his once rocky relationship with Rick Ross, saying, “it’s a work in progress.”
“We grown men,” Jeezy said. “The title, Seen It All, I gotta be honest, I just had to come to terms with being an adult and being a leader. Ignorance is one thing and being about your business is another. When me and homie finally had a chance for us to talk and not nobody talking between us we saw everything alike. We made great music before. Why wouldn’t you make great music? At the end of the day, that’s what the world needs more so than people going back-and-forth. The way I looked at it is, people get hurt. I been in them situations before and it’s never you, it’s somebody around you. It wasn’t worth that to either one of us. I think the music is more important. Look at ‘Beautiful,’ that song would’ve never came about if two adults wouldn’t have had a conversation. When I say, ‘I seen it all,’ I really grew up. I came in the game, I was a different dude. Now I see the world different.
“The media and instigators just talking between two adults,” he continued, touching on the reason behind the rift. “Rap is a competition, you got fans. When I grew up I loved Tupac, a lot of people loved Biggie. It’s just like when you wake up and understand that people are always gonna compare ‘cause that’s what it is then you gotta be an adult about a situation.”
Elsewhere in the conversation Jeezy admitted to still feeling underrated before detailing his role in YG’s current commercial success.
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“Only a few people understand my message and where I come from and what I’m kicking,” Jeezy said. “I’m not gonna waste my time in the studio and talk about what I got or what I accumulated, I want to empower you. I want to motivate you, I want to give you inspiration. That’s why they calling me Pastor Young. You don’t go to church to hear the preacher talk about himself.”
When asked about the difference between YG and Freddie Gibbs, Jeezy seemed to allude briefly to his ongoing rift with the Pinatarapper.
“YG just was a different person,” he said. “YG was about his business. YG wasn’t looking for me to do everything for him. He didn’t have a problem spending his money. He didn’t have a problem using his team. It was just like, it wasn’t a Jeezy thing. It was just like, ‘How can you help me do what I’m trying to do rather than you do it for me?’”
Nearly ten years after his major label debut, Jeezy also spoke about his early reluctance to open up to the music industry.
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“I’m gonna keep it a hundred, I must say, I’m from the streets and we was raised by a different code,” he said. “Nobody around my way was famous. So all these people coming at you, you’re just trying to see their motive. Just trying to see who got a motive. This industry was different for me so it took me a while to figure out who was with me and who was against me. This is different than the streets. In the streets you know, you got two options: you’re going to jail or you gon’ be in that pine box. That’s just how the consequences are. With this people’ll trick you off your feet for everything you worked for…I tell my son everyday, keep your circle small. That’s just what it was, the industry wasn’t my circle.”
RELATED: Seen It All: Analyzing Jeezy’s Career Through 5 Albums
