Before Jeezy decided to write a book, he was journaling during the height of COVID-19 pandemic to better understand his feelings at that moment.
For decades, the Grammy-nominated Atlanta rapper and businessman has built a tough persona that heavily relied on an unyielding hustle for success and fame (after all, his breakthrough major label debut is titled “Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101″). But, with the help of journaling and therapy, he embraced the power of vulnerability and not being afraid to fail.
He later realized that what he was journaling would better fit in a book that he hopes will help others.
“I just feel like as someone who’s had some type of success, you gotta share some of your downfalls, right?” the 45-year-old said. “Because there’s somebody else out there who needs to hear it and needs to understand that this is normal. And these are the things that you go through because I know a lot of books that I’ve read have helped me, so I just felt like why not put my life in the book so it can help someone else? It doesn’t have to necessarily be someone in music. It’s a book about life. Because I used to be one of those type of people that hated failing, and then I started to understand that the knowledge is in when you fail.”
With “Adversity for Sale: Ya Gotta Believe” (HarperCollins Leadership, $26.99) he’s ready to share all of that knowledge for the first time. The book publishes on Tuesday, Aug. 8.
Jeezy started writing the book in 2020, and it took about a year to complete. Although he said releasing his first book still feels surreal, he’s happy that he can encourage readers by sharing his own story. A staple within Atlanta’s hip-hop scene and beyond, Jeezy is a pioneer in popularizing trap music and shaping its sound.
The motivation to write his own book was inspired by reading books by self-help author Robin Sharma like “The 5 a.m. Club” and “The Everyday Hero Manifesto.”
Credit: Courtesy of HarperCollins
Credit: Courtesy of HarperCollins
“You learn more when you fail,” he said. “You don’t really learn a lot when you win. ... You got to still go back through this continuous cycle of always showing up at your best and even when you fail, especially when you’re leading people or you’re the boss or you’re the manager or you’re the head of a household. You can’t just be like, it didn’t work and you give up.”
“So I think that the win is in the loss, and I feel like (in) “Adversity for Sale,” I’m gonna tell you everything that I went through that challenged me and gave me some pushback and how I worked my way through it.”
Writing the book became therapeutic for him. His favorite part of the process was resurfacing painful childhood memories that he hadn’t fully processed. He recalls the moment when his parents divorced. The rapper was born in Columbia, South Carolina, but moved to Atlanta as a child after his parents separated.
In writing the book, he had to rehash some traumatic experiences of that time. “In music, you’re able to mask a lot of things and when you’re writing you have to be transparent,” he said. “You have to be an open book because if you’re not, your readers will see through it. It’s almost like doing a song and not being real about it.”
The books is divided into three parts and includes 20 chapters. Jeezy said one his favorite chapters to write was “Def Jam’s Bad Boy,” which recounts when he captured the attention of hip-hop moguls Jay-Z and Diddy at the same time. In 2005, Jeezy was a part of Boyz n Da Hood, which was signed to Diddy’s Bad Boy Entertainment. The act dropped its eponymous debut album that same year. A month later, Jeezy signed to Def Jam and released his major label debut.
“I was probably the only person running around with two deals that I basically negotiated. I told my lawyer how I wanted to negotiate, and I feel like that was a big deal. You signed to Def Jam, which is one of the biggest labels in the world, and Jay-Z is the president, and you’re in a group with Puffy. That’s unheard of for somebody to have. I felt like Deion Sanders.”
Credit: Raftermen
Credit: Raftermen
Earlier this year, Jeezy held a concert alongside the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra — the rapper’s first time performing with a classical orchestra. Last week, he performed at The Tabernacle for Amazon Music’s “50 & Forever” sessions to commemorate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. Though he continues to add feats to his legacy, Jeezy hopes people learn from his new book that he’s still growing and finding the power in transparency.
“This chapter in my life right now would be describe as evolution. I’m evolving every day, and I want the people around me to evolve every day and we’re gonna embrace that. We’re not gonna look at it as if it’s a bad thing. We’re gonna embrace the fact that we’re evolved and we’re in this together and everybody has a vision and my goal is to help them reach theirs as I reach mine.”
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