DX: Wanna switch gears here and ask you about something you spit on “Hustlaz Ambition”: “Muthafuck all my enemies/One time for my mini-me’s/Listen at these niggas, I bet you hear plenty me.” Who’s the “mini-me’s”?
Young Jeezy: I think that [verse] summed it up in itself. It’s [to] whoever’s concerned, or whoever it offended. [Laughs] Real talk.

DX: You wanna speak on…’cause you know people are gonna start speculating that was [a jab at] Shawty Lo [or] that was Rocko.
Young Jeezy: Nah man, I said what I said. I’ma leave it at that. If I wanted to name-drop I woulda done that. No free promotion over here baby!

DX: [Laughs] Well, you punctuate that verse by saying, “I’m who they pretend to be/Did what they pretend to do.” You know I gotta ask since it’s the hot topic and he’s in your “Vacation” video [click to view]: Should fans look at Rick Ross as one of those pretenders?
Young Jeezy: Nah, Rick Ross [click to read] my dude, man. I can’t let you… [Laughs] You tried to set that one up. [Laughs].

DX: [Laughs] Let’s follow it up though - the exposes, anything you wanna say? ‘Cause it’s too easy in 2008 to go pull somebody’s file.
Young Jeezy: Yeah. I mean, I can’t speak… I’ma keep it 100. I can’t speak on behalf of nobody else, man. All I can say is on some real nigga shit you gotta just be 100. And sometimes being 100 is just being 100. Shit, before or after, as long as you handle your business.

DX: Do you think trap rap, or whatever the fuck you wanna call it, confuses kids into thinking rappers are active in the drug game and not just referencing a life they no longer lead?
Young Jeezy: I mean, see that’s like with that “Don’t Know You,” that’s kinda why I made that song. ‘Cause I don’t wanna get caught up in that. Like that “Don’t Know You” record was talking about. I don’t like “trap rap.” I don’t think that’s the definition for my music. And you know the trap, we invented the word and it was a way of life, but sometimes people make it up out of that and they go on to do bigger and better things.
But just from me looking at it, I think that at the end of the day [the kids] gotta see a nigga turned a negative into a positive. Nigga was living fucked up, [but] now he got his shit together. So you know, you gotta just kinda take [what’s being said] for what it’s worth. I ain’t no saint. I’m not fin to sit here and say that. Nor would I sit here and say I done anything wrong. But I know what I do now. I get up and go hard everyday just like the next man.

DX: There’s a lot of risk in exposing your life in your rhymes. I remember when I first spoke to you back in 2004 for your Show & Prove piece in XXL you wouldn’t give me your real name or birth date, or verify any personal info about yourself. So how did you go from that sort of guarded position to sharing so much of your personal story with the people?
Young Jeezy: Because it comes a point in time you gotta do you. Like, you keep saying you real, you gotta just mean what you say. And the only way to do that is to keep it 100. Not even to the point where you just looking ignorant, but it’s like… We grew up on [Ice] Cube [click to read] and all those cats and you heard everybody talking about killing everybody back then. That was the whole thing, if you ain’t killed nobody you ain’t [real]. So that just kinda go with the game. Like, if you a hustler you gotta know how to hustle. You gotta be able to explain to somebody else how to hustle. And if you can’t you not a hustler.