Young Jeezy’s stock in Hip-Hop right now is divided, depending on who you ask. Some will say that he’s fallen off, and that he’s yet to release another project as compelling as The Recession to reinstate his relevance. Others will say that everything he does has a gold touch as far as album releases and mixtape drops, and would point to TM:103 as proof of that. In all honesty, even as Snowman’s impact on Hip-Hop cannot be disputed, the reality’s somewhere in the middle. Although being doubted time and time again, Jeezy’s yet to truly disappoint with a release, outside of a couple of loose mixtape drops before TM:103.
His consistency is admirable, and even envied by some artists, and he displays that again with his latest drop. It’s Tha World links up the all-star duo of he and DJ Drama to deliver more of the quality street music we’ve come to love them for, even if it’s nothing entirely original. From the “El Jefe Intro” produced by Lodi, the tone’s set for a majority of the project, and Jeezy embraces that tone wholeheartedly, dropping hype songs like “RIP” (with 2 Chainz), “Knob Broke”, and the radio-ready “Get Right.”
However, there’s a few tracks that just seem to go through the motions, drawing down the replay value a bit, most notably being “Too Many Commas” with Birdman, and, surprisingly, “Turn Up Or Die”, which features an intro from the incarcerated Lil’ Boosie. It also shows the redundant theme for the mixtape, as “Knob Broke” and “Turn Up Or Die” is essentially the same spirit of song. Thankfully, charismatic entries like “Evil”, the solid collaboration with Trey Songz on “Tonight”, and the Lodi-produced “Thank You” help to close the project as strong as it began.
It’s one of the stronger releases from Jeezy that we’ve had in recent memory, and it’s fully deserving of the free download. Jeezy’s improving his consistency, and even with the few filler songs sprinkled in (along with redundant topics, of course), if he continues in this vein there’s no real reason to think he’ll fall off any time soon. With production from the aforementioned Lodi, Jahlil Beats, Black Metaphor, Cardo, Mike Will, and more, Its Tha World is a nice serving of Jeezy that will hold us over until he pops next.
Rating 7.5/10