Record Label Nearly Censored Thug Motivation 101 Album Intro Track From Young Jeezy

Post by Alex Stone, Feb 22, 2012 at 10:27 am Speak Up0

Young Jeezy spoke about making his latest album and tracked back to his first ‘Thug Motivation’ release when his label had some reservations about the record’s intro track. The rapper dropped the third installment in his ‘Thug Motivation’ series, ‘Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition,’ in December 2011.

According to Young Jeezy, Def Jam’s executives were initially unwilling to let the rapper start of ‘Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101’ with what eventually became the album’s eponymous intro, but Jeezy stuck to his guns and eventually managed to convince the label that letting him have his way was the right decision. “Crazy story with that shit. I was fighting to get that song on the record. The label wanted to take it off. I was like, y’all fucking crazy. It was one of those things. In the beginning, a lot of motherfuckers didn’t know where I was going with it. I had to stand on that. It was one of those win or lose things, and I feel like I won, you feel me? It was a dark time, but it was a lot of money,” Jeezy told Statik Selektah in an interview on Shade 45.

Young Jeezy also talked about the marketing strategy he used to get ‘Trap or Die’ out and said that handing out 700,000 copies of the recording was instrumental in getting his music heard, even if offering the mixtape for free impacted his budget. “I passed out 700,000 CDs until I got a show. I was pulling up on niggas in my Ferrari like here you go… It was about that. That shit worked though,” said Young Jeezy.

Jeezy’s ‘TM103’ is the follow up to his 2005 debut, ‘TM101,’ as well as his 2006 album ‘The Inspiration,’ which is also known as ‘TM102,’ and represents the rappers fourth studio effort. ‘TM103’ hit the Billboard 200 at number three after it moved 233,000 copies in the first week of its release, and earned a gold certification at the end of January.