Young Jeezy and the Family take over Mixtape Monday

Young Jeezy Gives Atlanta Homies 'Their Just Due': Mixtape Monday Plus:
By Shaheem Reid and Jayson Rodriguez, with additional reporting by Rahman Dukes



Artists: Young Jeezy and Corporate Thugz Entertainment

Representing: The trap and beyond

Mixtape: Shield Gang 2: In the Shield We Trust

411: It's Atlanta Week on MTVNews.com. We couldn't choose anybody better to kick it off than Young Jeezy. If you're in ATL, you might see Young's baby-blue Lambo flying down I-85. You might catch him holed up in Club Miami. You're probably going to see him at Spondivits getting his grub on. But more often than not, the homie is in the studio.

The Snowman just dropped Shield Gang 2: In the Shield We Trust with DJ Folk and all the artists on his roster. Jeezy said the focus for the street CD is really on the CTE team and not him.

"Shield Gang was crazy. You got everybody on there from the homie Slick Pulla — free Slick Pulla — Blood Raw, Roccet, 211. The family is growing. We here. One life, one love."

While in Atlanta, we caught up with Young and three members of the camp he says to look out for: Screwww, Bama and Boo Rossini.

"Screwww been a beast sine day one," Jeezy explained. "He's been grinding independently anyway. He's been doing his thing since I was doing my thing. He's just getting his just due. The streets gotta look out for him. Bama is a beast. He's one of the youngest, one of the wildest cats in Atlanta. He's representing that Southside Mafia. My partner, Boo, we go so far back it ain't even funny. Boo Rossini, he's been doing it since Trap or Die."

Now that he's established in the game, Jeezy said he wants to make sure his crew is given the proper spotlight.

"That was my goal. Nobody gave me a ladder to climb," Young explained. "When I got there, I said, 'I'm gonna throw the ladder down for my homies and keep the door open.' Ain't nothing up here fabricated.

"Everybody do what they do in some other way to make a living, but they love music," he added about his artists. "That's why we here. I was the same way six, seven years back. I felt like it was only right to give them their just due."

Jeezy has his own solo mixtape with DJ Infamous dropping soon, but he's keeping the info close to the chest.

"I got a mixtape coming out too, but I don't know the name yet," he said. "I just been grinding, homie, making sure the homies get in. We way stronger than this. It's a lot of homies that represent CTE, but we are the streets. You talking to the cat that comes from mixtapes. I wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for mixtapes. I passed out tapes. I respect the game."

Joints To Check For

» "Comeback" by Boo Rossini. "Me, I got a lane where I deal with the females. I do the [street] thing in my sleep, but I'm in my own lane where I'm hollering at the females," Boo said. "My [solo] mixtape is Feed the Streets. It's a drought, so we gonna feed the streets."

» "It's Gone" by Bama. "You could be selling your CDs in the trunk of your car, you can get it off. You're doing your thing in the streets, you get that off too. This song is for you. My [solo] mixtape is called Street ID, Volume One. It's real big. Big brother looked out for us, and we gonna look out for him and bring hit records to the table."

» "Down for the Cause" by Screwww. "I appreciate the homeboy Jeezy," Screwww said. "He put that ladder out and said, 'Climb up.' We sure need it, because you know what's going on out here. We appreciate all that. My solo mixtape is with Bigga Rankin. It's called As Real as It Gets. The title is self-explanatory."