Jeezy Makes Truce Between Bloods, Crips On Set Of New Video, mtv.com :
Da Snowman says his 'thug motivation' led to cease-fire on 'Trap Star' set.
How do you make a Snowman feel warm on the inside? By showing him some love, of course, and you'll have plenty of chance to do so in the near future.
"If feels good 'cause we're away from Atlanta and we're still reppin'," Jeezy said about headlining the Georgia Power Tour with T.I (see "T.I., Young Jeezy Hitting The Road On Georgia Power Tour"). "We're gonna bring it to everybody's 'hood and keep it 'hood."
Forget King Kong — Young Jeezy says the reception he's been getting is "Godzilla" huge and sometimes it doesn't feel real.
"How I'm gonna go to Detroit and they feeling me? I'm from Georgia," he said, smiling. "That's extra special, homie! You go to New York and they feeling me, that's extra special, homie! It means one thing: They're feeling the movement. It's the beginning of the beginning.
"For me and Tip to be out together, that's big for me," he added. "It makes me think about when Jay and Big ran the city. It's on like that. We kinda got the game in a chokehold. You're getting two of the best. Ain't no way around that. ... For me and Tip to live that legacy, that's what it is."
Jeezy's Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101 has already passed the 1 million sales mark and is still climbing. Being in a boss playa position has allowed Jeezy to lay out his own plans rather than let Def Jam tell him what to do, so Jeezy stuck to his guns and recently shot — and partially directed — the video for "Trap Star."
" 'Trap Star' is my favorite song on the album, so I really took my time and put it together," he said of the video. "I went out to L.A., shot it the way I wanted to shoot it. It's crazy 'cause I sat down there and wrote it and it came out how I wrote it. To see that, it's like, 'Damn, I could write a movie if I'd like.' "
"Trap Star" might remind you of a Samuel L. Jackson movie, actually: Jeezy's treatment was inspired by the flick "S.W.A.T."
"I wanted to get everybody incorporated: the Bloods, the Crips, the women, the eses," he said. "It was bigger than the video to me. A dude from Georgia is in L.A., you got [West Coast Bloods] here, East Coast Crips there. I got a lot of my Spanish partners from East L.A. It was bigger than a song. I am a trap star because I got all these people together. We ate together, talked together, we kicked it. No violence, nothing. Nobody called cop cars. Nobody set-tripped, nobody pulled out no guns. It was thug motivation. That means 30, 40 people are going to go back to their 'hoods and say, 'It wasn't so bad. We can be cool.' That's why I call it 'thug motivation.' "
Jeezy is already working on his next solo LP as well a group album from his clique the U.S.D.A, which also includes MCs Slick Pulla and Blood Raw.
Check out the feature "Young Jeezy: Putting His Mouth Where His Money Is" for an in-depth interview with the Atlanta rapper.
