Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101, the album that kicked off Jeezy‘s career, is 20 years old, which calls for some reflection. He tells ABC Audio his fondest memory of release day was “the possibility of creating a new life and doing something that I was learning to love.”
“A lot of the stuff that I had been doing before then, I couldn’t see the future in it, but I knew that this was something that I could do if I really just applied myself and was very disciplined about it,” he explains. “I was just excited [about] just the possibilities of doing something legitimate that I loved.”
Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101 was met with positive reviews, debuting at #2 on the Billboard 200 and quickly going Platinum. It helped to define the sound of trap music and is now certified double Platinum.
“I think it was real. I think it was authentic and I think it was something that hadn’t been heard because my superpower was actually speaking in the code that the streets understood and you would have to be from that to understand that,” Jeezy says about why the album resonated with so many fans.
While he thinks the music was good, he suggests it stuck with people on a deeper level because they felt like he was talking to them.
“I think that people really understood that I was for them,” Jeezy tells ABC Audio. “It was like real music for real people just going through a real struggle that had real obstacles in their way.”
TM:101, a live symphonic reimagining of the album, is now available on streaming platforms and is being played around the world as part of Jeezy’s current tour.
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
