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The Recession
by Young Jeezy

Young Jeezy reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 72 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.6 out of 10
based on 18 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 14 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

The latest album for the Atlanta-born rapper includes guest appearances by Nas and Kanye West.

LABEL: Def Jam
RELEASE DATE: 02 September 2008
DISCS: 1 disc
GENRE(S): Rap

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
The Phoenix
Elsewhere we get lots of the usual earthquake bass and keening synth arpeggios and staccato horns, and, of course, Jeezy’s hypnotically commanding flow, all of it amounting to one of the hardest mainstream rap albums in years.
Read Full Review
85
RapReviews.com
Jeezy manages to keep a strong unified album together without ever getting monotonous or tired.
Read Full Review
83
Entertainment Weekly
Jeezy has assembled a politically tinged disc that will sound spectacular blasting out of dashboard speakers for the rest of the year...assuming anyone can still afford to drive a car by then.
Read Full Review
80
Billboard
Young Jeezy balances commercial/ pop aspirations with core hip-hop sounds on The Recession, getting a lift from DJ Toomp, Drumma Boy, Midnight Black and longtime collaborator Shawty Redd on this sonically enjoyable follow-up to 2006's "The Inspiration."
Read Full Review
80
Slant Magazine
There's a unique pleasure in hearing a once one-dimensional rapper discover complexity, and for that Recession is nearly indispensable.
Read Full Review
80
PopMatters
With the expectations set high, The Recession doesn’t disappoint, though as with any of his albums, it would benefit from some truncation.
Read Full Review
80
Village Voice
His first two albums were well-crafted, uncompromising in their focus, and exceptionally entertaining. The Recession makes it three.
Read Full Review
75
cokemachineglow
Relistening, the porousness and vapidity of the material makes it pretty obvious that rapper Jeezy’s personality is one note, gruff and brash, forever and ever. But in the album’s waning moments, 'My President' erases any genuine qualms, sporting the record’s best Toomp impression.
Read Full Review
75
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Recession is silly, repetitive, and wildly unoriginal. Yet thanks to Jeezy's razor-blade rasp and goofy charisma, it's also strangely infectious.
Read Full Review
70
Blender
If recession-era Jeezy sounds a lot like boom-time Jeezy--describing coke cooking and the cars one gets in reward—that’s because he has always fancied himself an educator, a Learning Annex lecturer, an inspirational-desktop-calendar hustler.
Read Full Review
65
Pitchfork
Bolstered by a gimmick and a catchphrase, the album is by-and-large Jeezy qua Jeezy, and the new fissures aren't enough to keep pundits gabbing.
Read Full Review
60
Rolling Stone
While the usual approach is still good for a certain seductive brawniness, there's not much here that Jeezy hasn't done before.
Read Full Review
60
All Music Guide
Even if it falls a distant third out of the first three, the scattershot Recession is still a welcome and even risky step forward, one carried by its highlights and the newfound awareness that the cocaine grind isn't everything.
Read Full Review
60
Hartford Courant
The Atlanta crack rapper's third album is largely a faithful rehash of his first two platters, which transformed him from unrepentant hustler to unlikely inspirational figure
Read Full Review
58
Paste Magazine
The Recession's singles are exceptional, but the filler suffers from a detached and dispirited sound.
Read Full Review
45
Prefix Magazine
Putting out an album called The Recession right now, and draping the American flag over your head on its cover, comes with expectations of politically conscious ruminations. Instead, we get more of the same
Read Full Review
40
Tiny Mix Tapes
The Recession, then, is a portrait of the artist as an over-his-head young man.
Read Full Review
37
Los Angeles Times
Jeezy's sonic sins would be partially pardonable were The Recession to flash any hint of fun or humor. Instead, the street-cred-consumed caricature is more content to rip off Tupac Shakur ("Hustlaz Ambition") and write abominable hooks.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this album is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 14 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Wes M. gave it a3:
I don't know... I thought the beats were serviceable but unremarkable and the rhymes remarkably weak. On the other hand, most everyone I've spoken with has RAVED about the album, so it's probably worth a shot if you've enjoyed any of Jeezy's previous work and singles.

Lynn B. gave it a10:
I love this album. He still raps about white, but he also got into the widely publicized political arena... I'm a huge Jeezy fan from the beginning and it wont ever change!!!!

Chew gave it a9:
I have some feeling these critics haven't looked at the Cd quite well. Thats just my opinion, but seriously! The average of this cd (66 as I see right now) is severely low. Don't underestimate this cd.

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