“Scared of the Dark” strikes the same chord-Jeezy is talking about people who can’t operate in the drug game, but you might also be thinking of a passive-aggressive co-worker. This is the double-bind that Jeezy embodies so well, the grandiose and everyman quality that makes him so vital. When he raps that his “ dream is to make mil by 12 today / and I can get it done out of mind state / don’t need you fucking up my grind state,” there’s a part of the song that is ostensibly about a wealthy person wanting to be richer, then there’s the part about the idea of striving for whatever one’s personal version of “ a mil” happens to be.
Album opener “Grind State” is pure bombast, loaded with the connotative dissonance that makes Jeezy’s best work so satisfying. The best parts of Church reflect that perspective. Fully recovered from miniature skid his career was in during the lost CTE/Rick Ross feud years, Church in These Streets was likely conceived as Jeezy’s return to the populist, thug motivation that made him a hero in the mid-to-late aughts. That’s probably a conscious choice after 2014’s Seen it All: The Autobiography-a return to form that features a litany of high-profile features-one can assume that the choice to release an album nearly devoid of guests is a conscious one. The same could likely be said of any like-minded street-facing rapper, but the fact remains that, when he doesn’t align himself to another entity, Jeezy’s mainstream success is limited.īy that measure, Church in These Streets limits itself to outside appeal. Nearly every big hit has come equipped with either a hook-singer, a lyrical equal or a buzzing, of-the-moment hype man. By the time "Sister Good Game's Testimony" snarls all the weak and meek out of the trap house, it seems Jeezy's "Pastor Young" character comes with the toughest brand of love, but "I Feel Ya" ("You put your fam on your back, boy I feel ya/You put your hood on the map, boy I feel ya") is a sympathetic cut that broadens the album's spectrum.Dating back to his major label debut in 2005 when he was still young, Jeezy’s biggest hits have always come bundled with someone else on the track. The title cut is also the LP's key cut as it bangs along with twerking Zaytoven production, and offers the album's main message for anyone caught in the drug game: "If you see another day, then just say 'Hallelujah!'" The track "Lost Souls" is a heavy triumph, sampling a bit of the movie Street Life before the lyrics declare that any time spent in jail is time spent breeding another monster, while later, the woozy and hooky banger "Scared of the Dark" skewers flashy gangsters for their unwillingness to do life's dirty work. Dropping the Young from his name and turning on the full Jeezy, Church in These Streets finds the veteran Atlanta MC tackling the concept album while playing the role of an inner-city preacher.
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