Hip-hop legend Jeezy has been a mainstay in the rap game for quite some time. However, he recently revealed his origins on The Neighborhood Talk, getting into how he scrimped and saved so he could spend time and money at the studio to record music. In 1998, Jeezy launched his first label imprint, Corporate Thugz Entertainment, which came to be CTE World. He also released independent music under the rap name Lil J, his first album being 2001's Thuggin' Under the Influence (T.U.I.).
Between '98 and '04 -- which is when he signed with Bad Boy Records and the rap group Boyz n da Hood -- Young Jeezy was struggling to get his music career off the ground. In the short Instagram post, he explains how he needed to make specific sacrifices to pour money into both CTE World and his independent albums. "I saved all my money 'til I was able to grind up and get what I really was trying to do," he says in the video. "And that's when I took my game to the next level."
Jeezy's Subway Budget
During the dog days of his career, Jeezy was somehow getting $2 meals at Subway. He claims that he walked to the sandwich restaurant daily to grab a drink, a cookie, a bag of chips, and a six-inch sub and that was all he ate for two or three years. How he got all of that for $2 is up for debate, as the Insta comments show. Either way, Jeezy did this for a long time and made it up the rap ladder because of it.
After years of putting out his own music, Jeezy signed with Def Jam Records in 2005. He released Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101 in July of that same year. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and eventually was certified Platinum. As they say, the rest is history: Jeezy has 10 studio albums under his belt, the latest being The Recession 2, released in 2020. Jeezy has been relatively quiet since the pandemic, but he did release a collaborative album with DJ Drama in 2022 entitled Snofall. His most recent endeavor was an autobiography, "Adversity for Sale: You Gotta Believe", which expands on this story of saving every dollar for a shot at success.
