CD Review: Young Jeezy - Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101

Young Jeezy "Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101." Def Jam. 19 tracks. Grade: A-

How many great artists can one city have? Even in the early 1990s, Seattle didn't dominate rock the way Atlanta's dominating hip-hop right now. Maybe one day we'll be all about coattails and fumes. But today is not that day.

Today is the day that Atlanta hip-hop sees the release of another classic --- Young Jeezy's "Let's Get It," a fearsome gangsta rap album that's as clever and addictive as Dr. Dre's 1992 landmark "The Chronic."

Hip-hop fans may know Jeezy from his group Boyz N Da Hood, an Atlanta quartet with a self-titled album that recently cracked Billboard's top five. "Let's Get It," though, establishes the gruff MC as a star in his own right. If "The Chronic" was "The Godfather" of gangsta rap, this record is the genre's "Scarface" --- not a slow-moving ensemble picture but a noisy, bloodstained portrait of a charismatic anti-hero living his own drug-infested version of the American Dream.

To love this record is not to endorse what's in it, just as loving "Scarface" is not endorsing Tony Montana. But you gotta respect the craft. The way Jeezy growls that he moves a lotta grass, like he's got a lawn service. The way he fashions himself as "Donald Trump in a white T," and "your favorite rapper's favorite rapper." The way he cold-bloodedly says, "I don't get mad / I just get money."

Most artists can't make a consistently good 12-track album. Jeezy barely stumbles over the course of 19. The guy's like a machine. His rhymes are tight, his storytelling is compelling, and his tracks are as big as monster trucks. Jeezy makes it look easy.