JeezySeen It All: The Autobiography
Def Jam

- At the relatively ripe age of 36 it seems like an odd time for rap veteran Young Jeezy to drop the “Young” from his name. but maybe the Atlanta rapper knows something we don’t. Maybe Jeezy has one last trick hidden up his sleeve. On 5th studio album, the misleading Seen It All: The Autobiography, Jeezy shows that whatever he has up his sleeve consists mostly of hairs, skin and maybe a mole or two. There’s not a whole lot here for rap fans, or even Young Jeezy fans to get excited about.

After hearing the title track with Jay-Z, which is actually pretty sick, my expectations were lifted yet still grounded. I was, as usual, cautiously optimistic that another hero of my younger self could avoid flinging himself into a dank pit of worthlessness. You always expect the best from the ones you love and, in reality, Seen It All: The Autobiography isn’t flat out a bad record. It’s just another frustratingly average album from another proven hip-hop heavyweight that shines like 10% of the time: just not enough to light up my dark heart.

Despite the presence of trap and the usually next-level production from the likes of Mike Will and Drumma Boy, the splattering of awful, auto-tuned, half-singing and the appearance of Akon and a surprisingly on-point Jay-Z makes me feel like I've taken a ride in an incredibly low-powered time machine. A time machine that can only take a person a maximum of a decade backwards in time- which is equal parts charming and frustrating. Auto-tune, especially, refuses to get any more attractive through rose-tinted spectacles - a horrible side-note in history that somehow, won’t completely disappear from the musical lexicon.

It’s not all gloom and doom. Jeezy still has a decent kick left in him. The man can still lure me in with his unique vocal delivery and larger than life persona but despite a couple of very strong passages, he just feels caught in an uncomfortable purgatory. Weighed down and shadowed by the numerous guests and producers employed throughout the record. Seen It All is perhaps a fitting title but not in the way Jeezy envisioned- his supposed aural autobiography a rather limp attempt at relevancy from a rapper that used to command a stiff, wet mess from deep inside me.

- Jay Edwards.

JeezySeen It All: The Autobiography

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