‘I felt the streets needed some real music,’ he tells Mixtape Daily. By Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by Rahman Dukes Young Jeezy Photo: USDA This Week’s Main Pick Artists : Young Jeezy and Don Cannon Holding It Down For : CTE Mixtape : Trap or Die 2: By Any Means Necessary Real Spit : The Snowman’s track record is irrefutable. He likes his chances against anyone when it comes to the mixtape game. A couple of weeks ago, Young Jeezy returned to his Trap or Die origins with a sequel to the classic tape that came out nearly half a decade ago. “I felt the streets needed some real music,” Jeezy said down in Atlanta. Trap or Die 2 is the set-up to his upcoming LP, Thug Motivation 103. “At the end of the day, I never do an album without putting out a tape [first]. I felt that I would have been cheating if I ain’t do so. I went in the lab, got with my homie Cannon. [We] whipped it up. I’m on the block. The sound of this tape is a little different, I can’t lie. I wanted to do real music. I wanted to do a timeless mixtape. “When the first Trap or Die came out,” he added, “all I knew was the producers around the way. Now, these days, I’m a little bigger. Just a little bit. So I reached out. I hollered at Cannon, Toomp, Shawty Redd. … I don’t wanna forget nobody. I hollered at everybody, and they gave me music. It’s soulful. It’s some get-you-through-your-day music. It’s definitely some get-you-through-your-night music. Hopefully, if you listen to it right, by the end of the summer, your money should be right. Literally!” The aforementioned Cannon said he came aboard the project because Jeezy and DJ Drama, who hosted the original and was tapped to do this current tape, had scheduling conflicts. “I was called into Trap or Die 2 a couple of months ago,” Cannon explained. “It was something DJ Drama was supposed to do. I guess [Jeezy] felt the tape had to be done fast, because he was on a campaign.” Cannon visited Young in the studio one night to hear TM103, and the Snowman enlisted him for the mixtape. “He was like, ‘I got this mixtape,’ ” Cannon said. ” ‘I’m thinking about just putting it out. Doing it my way.’ He had the concept By Any Means Necessary. I told him, ‘Yo, this joint is gonna be crazy.’ A week or two passed by, he hit me on the phone. He was like, ‘Yo, would you do this tape if I want you to do this tape for me?’ That’s how Trap or Die 2 came about. I grabbed up all the records, took them immediately in the studio and got busy. We plan on taking over the summer with this thing.” Jeezy’s current single from TM103 is “Lose My Mind” with Plies . Joints to Check For
