Transcript of Episode 491: Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins: The $4M Bet That Built an Empire + His 7-Question Mentor Method

Hi, guys. It's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it.

All right, you guys. Today, we have a special guest on the show. He goes by Jeezy, right? Young Jeezy, right? That's what my husband told me, right? And first of all, thanks for coming on the show. We're going to talk about all your business ventures, your new biggest project in Vegas. So thank you for being on the show.

Thank you for having me.

Of course. We do this thing on the podcast. We take healthy performance shots. They're called Magic Mind, and they're to keep you focused. It's all healthy stuff. So it's like ashwagand. Are you into health at all? Yes, for sure. Okay. Do you exercise? Are you a big workout person? Okay. So then you'd like these. Basically, we just shake them. We do a We're going to get cheers, and then we're off to the races. Let's do it. So it's just a bunch of healthy ingredients to keep you on point. What does it taste like? You're going to know in two seconds. It tastes good. It's actually really good. It is good. It is good, right? Yeah, it's good. And now you're going to be super alert and super focused for the rest of the show.

Let's do it.

All right. So I wanted to ask you, where did you even get the name Jeezy from?

Well, growing up, there was an era where a New Orleans rap syndicate, it was called Cash Money, was taking over the world. And it was where Lil Wayne came from and all these guys. And they had these nicknames like BG and Jizzle and all that stuff. And around that time, I was becoming a hot boy because I was actually hustling and Getting my first entrepreneur job on. And the people in my neighborhood used to call me Jeezy because of my voice. My name is Jay. They call me Jeezy because that was my hood slang name. And it just fit when I started to do music because it was like, What do they call you? I'm like, Jeezy. And at the time, people were putting Young on their rap names. So I put Young Jeezy together, and that's how I came up with Young Jeezy.

I love that. Okay. You're known for being very entrepreneurial entrepreneurial, right? So you have the music side to you and you have the business side. Can you talk about what was your first entrepreneurial endeavor that you ever did?

I think I had one job before where I actually worked with my uncle. I had a job at McDonald's for five hours. They put me on the fries and I was out of there. Really? Yeah, no, I'm serious.

How old were you?

Maybe about 14, 15.

And you just hated it?

Because I understood right then and there, I couldn't for anyone. That wasn't who I was. And no disrespect to nobody that does. I just understood what I was trying to do. My first entrepreneurial job was cutting lawns in a neighborhood. I had a lawnmower that I bought, spent about $20 for it. My uncle helped me fix it up, and I would take me and my little crew, we used to go around, cut people's yards for $5, $10, stuff like that. That was like my first thing where I had money. Then, if you know anything about the South and Georgia, watermelons are That's a big thing. So I would go out and get these trucks with my uncles, and we would throw watermelons. So you would go out in the field and you pick watermelons, and you throw them, throw them, throw them back until they end up on the truck, and then you just keep that going. Then you go on the side of the road and you sell the watermelons.

How much did you sell them for?

I make like $20 a day. Really? Yeah.

Okay, so how many would you sell for $20?

Well, I would make $20.

How much would you sell to make the $20?

We pick maybe 100 watermelons a day.

That's a lot A lot of watermelons. Yeah.

And then you might not sell them all, but you might sell some here at this place, some here, there. When you get done, they would just pay everybody. But the reason why I say entrepreneur, because it was my uncle's company, so to speak. I don't even think he probably had a tax ID, but that's how he was getting paid in cash. And that was my first thing. And then coming up, the first entrepreneurs I really knew were musicians and then the local hustlers in my neighborhood. So hustling was like a family thing, meaning the environment I was in, it was natural to hustle. And so I got into that early on. My auntie's hustle, my uncle's hustle. It was just like a thing. And I just got into it and I was good at it. So once I picked that up, I was off to the entrepreneurial race. I just understood I was like, Okay, this is the way. I'm not going to stick with it, but I just need to use this to get to the next place, which was music. But I was hustling pretty much all my teenage years.

And just carried through. Yeah. Because you don't even know any different because that's how you always were.

Yeah, but it was like a thing. You're growing up in this small town. You know all the police people. They know your aunties, your uncles. So you're a good kid, but they just know that you're hustling. So you're not out here causing any trouble. So I hustled on my auntie's front porch. So that's where the song came from, How the Rest of the Am's in my Auntie's house, because that was like a truc. My Auntie's House, because that was like a truth. My auntie was my hustling partner. We hustled together. I love that. I used to get the money. She used to put it up for me, put it on her bra, put it up on her mattress or whatever. And she used to do these car games on the weekends and all the people that came to the car games, they were pretty much my clients. So I had this tight ecosystem of people that I really trusted. They were like, Let me use their car because I was given this. Or they would come over I used to hang out all weekend, but they would spend a couple of hundred dollars with me.

And I was just learning how to make this ecosystem. So that was my first company I would say I built. It was a very lucrative company for me to be that age.

And you were really young at that point.

Yeah, I was like 14, 15. Yeah.

Then wait. Even for the music stuff, that's a hard business. I don't know, you probably don't know this, but I used to be in the music world. I used to run marketing for BMG Music a long time ago. Okay, that's dope. Many years ago before I got into all these other things. I know how hard it is to get signed to labels, to stay on a label, to get to... The whole music world is, and it's so different even today. Back then, it's even more difficult, in my opinion, in some ways. How did you go from doing what you were doing then to getting signed? And who signed you? Can you give me the origin, the evolution of how you even... Because it is people who know, know, but people who don't know, don't know. It's a very difficult business.

Well, the first thing is music was my escape. I got to listen to music every morning before school. Every day, I got out of school, literally all day. But I learned from the music, so I just actually It was like a course. It was like a college course. I just listened to music to learn. It wasn't the same way I listened to podcasts. I literally listened to four, five, six different podcasts throughout the day.

Right. Just to get information, just to learn things.

I'm sponge. I just have to get it. It fulfills me. I used to listen to music, but I almost immediately understood that I was learning because I would get in the situation and be like, Hold on, what did Tupac say? Okay. And I would apply it, and it was working. And I I was learning that a lot of people that were around, they were stuck just on the hamster wheel of just what was going on. But they wasn't thinking outside the box because they were just hearing the music and not visualizing what came with it. I was like, Oh, you can... And that's how I was applying it to my day. So music was very important to me. And when I was doing what I was doing, hustling, I saw a A lot of things happen to a lot of good people, and I was just like, Okay, I can't get stuck in this because I see that there's really no win in it. And the thing that I was able to do was I was able to use my street smarts and just my savoir-faire to convince older people that I knew these other people that I can go get them something, too, and we can work this out.

So that was like my MO I would be around all the older guys, and I would get their money and be like, Give me two, three days. I'll be back. I'm going out of town. But literally, I already had what they were looking for. I just went on my grandmother's house and watched TV and played video games. And that was my M. O. So I built up a level of trust. And all this by listening to music because I was learning through the codes. So as it went on, and I started to get into these situations where they were life or death and freedom of jail. And I was just like, Okay, This is not going to work. I got to figure out how to pivot out of this. And around that time is when the cash monies and the no limits and all this stuff was taking off. And I was like, Well, maybe I could do that. So I immediately went out and bought studio equipment, went and started to sign people in the neighborhood and tried to put them in position to be rap superstars because I wanted to be the CEO.

That was my thing. I wanted to be the baby or the slim of my thing. And what I learned quickly though, I spent lots of money for a young age. I spent millions of dollars to try to put people on of my money.

Of your own money?

Yeah, of my own money. And it didn't work out. And then I was broke because some of my artists went to prison. Some of them got locked up for murder cases and so on and so forth. And I'm sitting in this studio because I really don't got nowhere to stay at this point because I don't put all my money into this. So this nice apartment I had, these nice cars I had, they're all gone now because I'm trying to stay afloat. And my looks at me, he goes, Man, you might as well do it. It's your life. You're out here living this stuff. And I was just like, You know what? And I just started on this mission of doing it. I just started to get in and start making music from the ground up. Of course, it took 10 years, and I had to get myself readjusted, and I had to hustle even harder because now I'm supporting my own career. Right.

Wow. So you did the opposite of what everybody else does? Yeah. So you went from running the company and trying to be managing all these people.

Which was a blessing because Yeah.

Now you understand the business.

I'm not how to run it. You see what I'm saying? I think that's what a lot of people miss when I'm sitting around listening to stuff. I go, Let's do that. And they're like, How do you know that? Because I've already did it 30 different times. A hundred %. So I know that.

And also that's why so many artists get in such trouble because they don't understand the business side of the business and how things work and how things you got on the back end of stuff. So if you're coming with that street savviness and business acumen, you're just ahead of the game right there in a lot of the ways.

And it's the same savvy that helped me secure deals that you wouldn't know them to get because I would go in these situations and I would be in these company meetings and I would just watch people just being disarray, just frantic. I'm coming from a game where the pressure is a freedom of jail, life or death. Those are the consequences. But you still got to play the game. So if I'm sitting in the boardroom and everybody panicked and I'm like, What's the worst thing that can happen? You lose your job. That's it. You know what I'm saying? Exactly. For you. Everybody calm down. You know what I'm saying? That's so true. Let's just think clear through the chaos. It's like, what's the best route? Or how can we execute this in a way? Because the thing that people don't understand is there's no wrong way. Education calls. Even if it doesn't work. You learn. And I made a decision that caused me millions of dollars, and I made a decision that didn't cost me anything. But education still caused. And I'm grateful for all the times that I was in situations because you got to think it's all strategy.

You know what I'm saying? When you're coming from where I came from, it's just like, I just look at it like, I'm standing on Monty's porch. How can I get from this mailbox on the front porch to where I need to go? How many steps is that in life. And when you go back and you just retrace all your steps, you had mishaps, you had let-ups, let-downs. You had times when you didn't even know how you was going to get your next meal, but you made it through. So knowing that in this world at this time, I don't really worry about much because I know if I don't have the answers, I built up a network of people that I can really call and have real conversations with about things that I need to navigate or strategy. And they're very respected people, but I think they see a lot of me, what they saw themselves when they were young. Of course. Yeah.

Do you have one mentor or one person that is your guide that helps you with this stuff?

I got a gang of- Board of directors? It's insane. Really? Oh, my God. It's insane. I don't really like the name because people are like, But it's the Tony Robbins. It's the Robin Shermans. It's the Robert Green, it's the D. D. James.

I love Robert Green. I love Robert. He's brilliant. In fact, actually, I'm very good friends with him, and he's writing a new book. It's almost finished. You know all about this? I was just going to say, do you know the book 48 Laws of Power? Because you would probably love it.

I'm going to be tapped into him for the law of attraction, though.

Well, he's got a billion laws of human nature, the mastery, so many.

That's where I really tapped in from him. You know what I'm saying? Me and Robert used to literally, when I was home in LA, we used to get up once a month, go to the LA I go to the fitness club and have a tea. Really? Yeah. I love it. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? Just have real... You know what I mean? I always stuck with my son and give me some advice. I give him some advice about culture. But me and Robert, we hang out.

Yeah, me I think that's great.

He's brilliant.

I love that. Also, have you seen that- John Maxwell, too.

I love John.

I don't know John Maxwell.

He's amazing. Really?

He's one of the- I know. I see his name all the time.

He's the best communicator I've ever seen. His communication skills are- Because I see his clips sometimes, and I like his perspective.

I should reach out to him to be on the show, actually.

Another one is Louis Howes. I love Louis. I know Louis, too. That's my guy. Louis is a great person.

Have you been on his show yet? Of course.

I was going to I talk to Louis all the time.

He's a great guy. He's a nice guy. Who else? We probably have a lot of mutual friends, actually.

You name them all, but that's the thing. Once I became an author, that opened a lot of doors, too. But I really love Robin Sherman as well. He's great. Yeah. Dave Gibson is another amazing one. I have a lot of resources when it comes to that. But these are real relationships. But they're my board of advisors. They notice. I can call Tony Robbins and be like, Hey. What do you think of this? He's like, Lay it on me, Jeezy. But then he'll call me about stuff, too, and I respect You know what I'm saying? But you got to understand, you take that and you flip it back when I came from the streets. I talked to the guys that were in that position in the streets the same way. They actually got advice from me.

I was going to say, do you have a group of people that you mentor?

Of course. Yeah. Yeah, I got programs, a young CEO program with the Urban League of Georgia, Greater Georgia. I got My Street Dreams Foundation, so we got a lot of stuff there. And then I just do my own mentoring as far as culture-wise. I'm not a, what would I say? I'm not a role model. You know what I'm saying? I'm not that, but I do have a set of skills, like the guy said on the transporter.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say.

I have a set of skills when it comes to living life that I'm very serious about, and I don't mind sharing the information because I know it changed my life.

What are some of the skills, the set of skills that you live by?

I think integrity I think it's a skill. I think it's a skill set. You know what I'm saying? And I think that it will get you... It's a slow grind, but it will get you farther than anything because you never know how much your past will affect you until 10 years later and people go, he was that way 10 years ago. Jesus, he's solid. You need that for people to trust you, you know what I'm saying? To let you into their world. I had people like... Because I was rough around the edges, so I had a lot of things that I I wasn't proud of, but people know that deep down inside, I was still a good person, and they would say that. It was like, he just came from rough beginnings, but he's actually a great person. Just sit down and talk to him, and that helped me out a lot because it was one time I was getting banned in radio stations. I couldn't even come in and promote my projects. Really? Yeah. Just because of the things that I was affiliated with, that people were just like, Oh, my God. He's terrible.

But I was just caught up in the situation, and I was also trying to help these misfits navigate stuff because I just was the one that saw around the corner. I was the prophet. I was like, Guys, we can do something great with this. It's bad now. It doesn't look good. Nobody likes us. But we can make this something great. And I think that I was the voice of reason.

And also perseverance. If one of your skills now is integrity, how did you go from where you were to where you've become, where now you're known for being someone with integrity and someone who's a good person?

Staying curious, right? And also not being afraid to think outside of the box. You know what I'm saying? I'll do things. Last year, I took a trip to Italy, a solo trip by myself, and just really wanted to just find myself and get centered. But in the middle of that, I called Robin Sherman. I don't know if you know his books. He did the Michael Soda's Ferrari, the 5 AM Club.

He just had a new book coming out.

Yeah, The Wealth and Money Camp, or something like that. But I just actually called him. I was like, Yo, are you going to be in Tuscany on Wednesday? He's like, I'm here. I was like, I'll be there Tuesday. I'm going to come by the house. Went by his house, sat out with him by his pool, looked at his wine vineyard, and we just sat out there and talked. And I was like, Hey, I got seven questions. We had this conversation. I was like, You mind if I break out my pad? He was like, No. And we just sat there and he just answered all my questions. And it got so good. He took my pad and started writing down his own answers. Like, What about this? What about that? And I know what he charges people to mentor them. And he asked me, he was like... Because we had lunch, so we had all this food. And he was like, Where are all your people? And I was like, I came by myself. My spirit told me to come sit down and talk to you. And he looked at me and said, You're very brave.

I never thought about it. I just got on a plane because I wanted to talk to him and ask him things I was trying to work through. But to me, that's thinking outside the box.

That's amazing. You just said one day, you just thought, I'm going to go to Tuscany, jump on a plane, and ask him seven questions. That's it. Did you have the seven questions written down? I did. Can you share What was your one of the questions?

It was actually about speaking. Oh, about speaking? Yeah. One of the questions was about speaking because I want to get into speaking. Right. So I just wanted to talk to him about what his process was to get to where he is in his speaking. And he just gave me the whole breakdown, how I structured, how I set up, where I need to start, what are the punch lines, how do you come on the stage, what's the posture you take, how do you get people into it, how do you make everybody clap to get on the stage? He just gave me this hold, and he went to writing it down. And same thing with John Maxwell. You know what I'm saying? It was seven questions, and he loved that. Actually, I got that from John Maxwell.

Really? Yeah. To come with seven questions?

Seven questions. They better be good. They better be good. I got that from John. When I got with John, I was like, John, I got seven questions for you. He just was laughing. He was like, My friend, you're so good at this. I was like, Yo, I need the answers. We became really close.

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I asked him about music to entrepreneurship because John was a pastor, and he ended up being leader for leaders. What he does now is leadership. And I asked him, How do you go? I said, How do you leave from one thing to go to the next thing? And he said, You don't leave something. You go to something. So you're not leaving music. You're going to this new life you want to go to. That always be there, but you're not leaving it. So don't put in your mind that you're leaving something because you feel like you're losing something, but you're not. You're actually just going to something else, and that's okay.

That's a really good reframe, actually. Yeah.

And TD It was the same thing because his entrepreneurship is like...

I love him.

And I'm like, Bishop- He's great. Explain to me this. And he was just like... He said, Well, the reason you messed up, Brother Jeezy, is I tell them, it's because you're putting this stigma on me. You're judging me because I'm a bishop. But I was an entrepreneur first. How about that? So I could be two things. That's right. Exactly. And I was just like, okay. It's true. Yeah. But I mean, coming from where you come from, it's just like the mentality is either or. It's sad to say. Because you don't feel like you can do two things great. You know what I'm saying? It's almost a miracle to do one thing great. But it's just like when can do two things great. But I think you should give yourself that grace and understand anything is possible if you work hard at it.

I think also it sounds to me that you seek out people that you respect and admire and try to lean something from them, learn something from these people. And I like this idea. I just learned that. As you were talking, this idea of doing seven questions. A, it's very focused and it keeps you focused and on point. And then people know there's a structure where you can stay within. So you can learn more. They know. That's a very good thing for people.

It's intentional and you're not rambling.

It's intentional. Exactly. I think that's a really good point for anybody who's listening, for me, even for a lot of people, right? You have people who reach out to you and they don't even know what they want to do or what they want to talk about. And then it's left on the person to figure it out for them. But if I think people would have a lot more success if they approach somebody with, I I have five questions for you. It's an intentional amount of things.

But also taking the intentional time to get to the point where you can ask.

Exactly.

Having the clarity, taking the time, and really diving in and not rushing the process of just because you know this person, you want to ask them. I thought about this Tuscany trip for a while, and I was like, I really need to go get some time in with him, and I want to talk to him. And I also want to see what he's doing that I don't understand. I've been to a lot of people's houses, but when I got to his house, I clearly I understood what was going on. I've never seen that type of beauty in my life. Really? Oh, no, ever. It's just the rolling hills, the wine vineyards, the olive trees, the mountaintop with the snow. This is his view from this pool, and I'm just going like... And When I left, I clearly understood there's a difference between living and the quality of life.

That's a good one, too.

You know what I'm saying? It was clearly a difference. And I'm going like, Oh, okay. Because sometimes we get up in the wrong things based on our environment. We think they're having the right car or the right jet or the right this or the right that is the thing, but it doesn't change the quality of life. I can see why he's writing the type of books he's writing. I'm looking at the room that he's sitting in while he's writing, and I'm going like, How could you not? Exactly. There's so much inspiration there. I remember leaving and telling one of my business partners at the time, sell all the cars. He's like, What is going on, though? I don't need it. You know what I'm saying? Because I was like, I'm cool. I want to live a simple I actually want to get a place over here in Tuscany. I want to do something. Are you going to move there? One thousand %.

When?

Soon. Really? Yeah, it's happening.

I love that. But that's what's good about this stuff, because it's one thing if you just do that and just have these ideas and don't really act on them, but you're actually, you take it to the next... I think that's where people get stuck. They don't take action.

It has to be a part of your purpose.

I know not everyone can move to Tuscany, but what I'm saying, whatever it is, it doesn't It may be on the other side of town.

You know what I'm saying?

It could be whatever. Yeah. But it's just like you got to- Changing your environment.

You got to inspire to do it and you got to know how you want to live your life, like what really matters to you. A hundred %. You know what I'm saying? And that matters to me because I know what type of state of mind that would put me in. No peace is like something... I mean, coming from chaos. You wouldn't want peace if you didn't come from chaos. To me, the end goal is peace. It's like to be somewhere where I'm great, I'm good. My focus is world-class. I'm not just thinking like, Just neighborhood or city stuff or just being in the United States. It's like it's such a world out there.

Huge world, I know.

And there are people that really want to help you and really want to pour into you. And there's stuff that they can actually help you to understand because it's just like a world-class view of things. And it's like for a person like myself who's pouring back into my culture, I want to have a world-class view. So when I'm having these conversations, when I'm doing these speaking I'm thinking and coming from a world-class level. So I'm not just giving you this stuff that's just cookie cutter because I feel like I have a voice. It's like, no, I'm actually going out and doing the work. I'm having the conversations. I'm doing the research. I'm taking the time to go have the solitude to come up with these business plans. I've done great business deals just on the surface. I bought and sold Avian tequila to Pernod Ricard. I've done crazy real estate deals.

What's the best deal? Give me an example of your most profitable, most lucrative business deal.

I would say Avian tequila.

Yeah, big one.

Shout out to my mentor and business partner, Ken Austin. He sold NetJets to Warren Buffet, and he started Avian tequila. He built it. I came in. He had the top. I was like, Ken, you just need to buy them. And he's like, What do you mean? I was like, Well, you have all these high-end hotels. You have all this thing, but you don't have culture. And he's like, Tell me about it. And I told him, I'm going to tell you about it, but I'm going to need some equity. You know what I'm saying?

Really? Yeah. I didn't know you were Are you even involved in that deal? Yeah.

I was his partner. I had stocks, share, everything in there.

That wasn't in my notes. I had no idea.

I had to buy out. Yeah, the whole thing.

That's a really good one.

I was like, Yeah. I mean, yeah. I thought it was sold. I had to sit down and think about that I wanted to make music anymore. I was like, Hmm, this was different. You know what I'm saying? Because it was probably one of the biggest accomplishments I had outside of music, outside of touring. And I loved it. I understood it. But you got to go back to the hustling mentality. I knew how to I knew how to mobilize people on the block, and I knew how to make things hot, and I knew how to navigate things. So I understood it by being in that environment. I was in all the clubs before I was doing music. I watched it. I watched, literally watched when Patron took off, meaning I was in the conversation. I was standing right there when the guy said, Hey, we don't have any more 1800. We got Patron. I looked at my man, he was like, Let's do that. And I watched it go from that moment to the world because that's how much of of a grip we had on culture. You know what I'm saying? That's amazing. I literally looked at it.

I saw it. Moët, Rosé, same thing. They'll tell you that. Moët will tell you that. We did that. Nobody was holding bottles in the club and all that. And I'm just saying that's a minute way of thinking about it, but You know what I'm saying?

It's not actually. I think it's a great way of looking at it.

But I'm looking at it from a world-class level of you see that go from culture to mainstream. But I'm looking at it and I'm seeing, oh, all you got to do is stand beside it and do this or that. And people will be like, okay, that's That's the new thing. That's what we're doing. And I think that that's what I brought to Avi on. It was like, how do you mobilize a group of people to like something at one time? And that's the skillset I had. And that's another skillset, mobilize. You know what I'm saying? Most people can't get people together. I knew that coming up early on. I'm making these songs and I'm filling arenas. I'm doing tours with Jay-Z, Rihanna, and all these people. But people are reciting every word that I'm saying for an hour, hour and a half, every word, right? You tell me where President, you're going to get to go up there and say any speech that people are going to recite for an hour and a half.

That's power. I don't know. Yeah.

That's power.

That is.

And that's the difference, because when I got into the music game, it wasn't about the money. I understood almost instantly that it was a position of leadership. Now, what am I going to do with this leadership? Because I was already leading when I was in my other environment because I wasn't the toughest. I didn't have to be, but I was the smartest.

That's 100 % true. That's such a good point. What do What do you think it is about your personality? Because I think what you just said, it's mobilizing, building community, getting people to do what you want. That's a really very particular skillset that most people cannot do. I don't think that's even something that's necessarily... You can't teach somebody that. I think you either have that or you don't.

I think it's in your heart.

It is. I think so, too.

Yeah, I think it's like your heart because people... What I mean by it's in your heart, it's like you got the heart is you got the heart to love and protect people, but then you got the heart to face anything. You're fearless.

Like courage and bravery.

You're fearless. You're fearless. Because in my mind, back then, I was ready to die for it. I was like, Malcolm X. Like, whatever. Let's do it. But as you begin to get knowledge, you're like, Well, I don't have to think about it like that. But let me just work on myself so that I can be the best version of myself. So now I have emotional intelligence. I don't get upset about things because me getting upset about things could shift everything because everybody's going to move with my energy. And back then, my energy was really in the streets. So I can turn the half of the world against half of the world. Imagine that. I can literally do that. You know what I'm saying? Just because I got up and said, You know what? I don't like that person or that, and wherever I put that energy at, you're talking about a whole Coast of people that's going to align with that because they align with me. And once I started to understand, I'm like, Okay, well, how can I use this for good? It's hard. But that's not a popular decision, so I had to fight through that because now people are looking at you like, Well, how you lead us to this point?

But then you want to switch up and do something that's positive. This doesn't make sense. But the people who understood the bigger vision stayed around. The people who didn't, they fell to the wayside, and that's okay. But now I'm in a different place, and my focus is different, and my vision is different, and the way I carry myself is different because this is what I was working on the whole time, because I understood that once I got to this position, that I can do world-class things and not just things where it's like, I would hate to just be this person who just made great music. That would just tear me up. I want my kids just to know that I just made great songs. I mean, we all do. When I think about Bob Marley, it's just like, look at all the great he did, though.

Right. So you want to be much more robust and well-rounded.

Well-rounded. Renaissance, man. That's where I come from.

Right. So what's your main focus now? So you've had a lot of evolutions, right? You had the... Well, I didn't know about the Avian one. Is there another one? What's another one that's really big, by the way?

Defiance Fuel, which was an athlete's water. We did very well. What's it called?

Defiance Fuel. Oh, Defiance Fuel. Okay. You have an energy drink, though, now called Edge. You didn't bring me one, though.

Yeah, I should have brought one, especially with this coffee. So Edge is an energy drink that also doubles as a mixer.

Okay.

So we're coming for Red Bull. Let them know.

I'll tell them.

You know what I'm saying? Let them know. We also Right now, it's just like we just did the book, Adversity for Sale, New York Times best seller. Congratulations. That's something I always wanted. Thank you. That's something I always wanted. So that worked out for the best. Right now, my focus for this year and the rest of 25 has been on this tour that I wanted to do that was a vision of mine that I wanted to elevate my culture with, which was an orchestra tour.

That's so great. I saw that. That's like a 100-piece orchestra, right?

Well, that's the one that we bring it to Vegas. So the one we just took around the Southeast and the Midwest was a 30-something piece. Oh, wow. Okay. And a black tie event sold out totally. It was one of the most just amazing experiences I've ever been a part of. And I wanted to bring it out to the West Coast, so we just got a residency. We're playing in Hollywood, and we're doing the Masquerade on October 31st, November first. Those are the two days for that. I saw that. And then we're doing the Nut Cracker on the 19th, and 21st of December. And this is at Plante Hollywood. And it's also the 20-year anniversary of my first album, which is Thug Motivation 101 that came out in '05. And I'm bringing a 101-piece orchestra. Shout out to the Color of Noir's Orchestra. Adam Blackstone, Derek Hodges. And on my birthday, I don't know when this is Aaron, I'm actually releasing a mixtape-slash-album with DJ Drama. Mixtape? Slash album with DJ Drama. It's called Still Snowing, and it's releasing on the 28th of September. I don't know when this is air. And also DJ Drama and I, this is how I got on by pressing up mixtapes and giving them out.

This is how I built my career.

That's how everyone builds their career. You actually gave out all the mixtapes. Yeah, for free, though. Yeah. You were probably going around the streets. How many do you think you gave away?

About a half a million.

A half a million? For sure.

Yeah.

How much did that cost just to make a half a million mixtapes? It probably cost you $100,000. Even back then. No.

Between that and my first time, I probably spent about $4 million.

Really? Yeah. Because at that point, you had no money.

And that's when I tell I don't even want to bet on themselves because I watch people sit there and budget things out. I'm just like, I don't even think like that. Let's go.

Tell us how you think. Tell us how people should- There's no bottom line on it. You'll just spend how much needs to be spent.

But I'm not just spending like a maniac. I'm definitely thinking about what I'm doing, but I'm not cutting any corners when it comes to my legacy, my future, and changing the quality of life for the people around me, because you have to take the risk. And if you're counting peanuts and you're not taking a risk, you got to break the glass ceiling. How are you going to do that? By spending your own... I've never took anybody's money. When I made my records, when I was signed to Def Jam, I paid for my own records. You did? Yeah, and I get my money back. But it's just like, because if I get your money, then I might treat it like it's free money. But if I'm spending my money, I'm going to work.

You're going to work. I'm going to work. That's exactly true. The only way to know a value of a dollar is when it's your money, right? Yeah.

And of course, you're going to save when you can. But it's just like some people are like, I got hundreds of dollars. I'm going to invest in this. And I'm like, Yeah, but if you got 250, let's go. That's right. What's the difference? It's all the same.

What did you spend the four million on? So you got The mixtapes, a half a million mixtapes. That's great. What else?

I mean, producers, studio time, marketing, videos.

What marketing back then did you do?

Well, the biggest thing was the snowman marketing, which is my alias, Snowman, because the only competition I got is Frosty. We're going to get into that. But I branded myself with Snowman and making all these T-shirts where I gave away these Snowman T-shirts to promote my album. That was hundreds of thousands of dollars because a lot of T-shirts. However, these same T-shirts, CNN, the high schools and middle schools banned the T-shirts, and CNN made a report about it. Really? Yeah, it was a big deal.

What were the T-shirts? Just Frosty, you said?

Well, the Snowman was on the T-shirt, my emblem of it. But they were saying what it represented. And they thought it represented drug dealing, street stuff and all that.

Really? The best press you ever got. Best press I ever got. Yeah, best press you ever got. Back then, also, seeing that was a big deal.

Well, the other best press I ever got was when I was coming around, I was doing my work, and I actually made this song on my third album called My President is Black, and it blew up right around the time Obama was running for President. And I did all these campaigns where I was written all these busses and bringing all these people in for the neighborhood to vote. And I did it with the radio station and I had lawyers going to the neighborhood to talk to people that was convicted fellows and tell them they could still vote. And boom, it just became this cultural classic. And I got invited to a correspondence dinner. When I got there, the Secret Service told my security I can't come in clearly because of my past. You know what I'm saying? And I felt the way because I bought a Tom Ford suit. I was ready. And they told me I couldn't come in. I left with my head down. And I was on tour in Europe about four Three years later, my mom called me. She was like, Baby. She's like, Obama just shot at you out last night.

I was like, You don't mess with me. She's like, I'm going to get your sister to send it to you. And he said, On my first term, I sing out green. This is at a correspondence dinner. He said, My second term, I'm singing Young Jeezy. Michelle likes that. And I was just like, My God. Really? Yeah. So that was definitely a big moment. That was great press, by the way.

That's great press. Yeah.

And he actually wrote me a letter. It was weird. What did it say? I did I did a documentary. So I've been an executive producer on a lot of documentaries. And I did this documentary on Hulu called Hip Hop in the White House. And I told this story and talked about all the stuff I did for him. And he just wrote me this letter. One of my guys called me. He's like, Hey, man, one of Obama's guy? He just called me. He wants an address on you. I'm like, Don't give it to him. He's coming to pick me up. He's like, No, I think it's good. Don't give it to him. You're right, because I didn't know what was going on. And I get it, and I open it up, and there's a letter, and it just makes you like, Man, just thank you for everything you're doing for the culture, your people, and we appreciate you, and thank you for everything you've done for me. And I was just like, Wow. Yeah, I hung it up on my wall. It was a big deal.

That is really amazing. Yeah.

I showed it to my daughter. She's like, Whatever.

Of course, she doesn't care. Isn't that funny how something that you were so upset about, where you walk in, they wouldn't let you in, but it comes back full circle in a different way?

That's why I say you just got to go because You just got to take the first step. Everything I've ever done, it never worked. It always came back better at the right time. And that's my prayer every morning. But clearly, that's the big guy's MO. He waiting till you're ready. If you're not ready, everything you're going through, he preparing you for the next step. You know what I'm saying? Because he can't give you what you're not ready for. You're going to drop the ball. And it's just like, that's a real thing. And I think for a lot of people, a lot of musicians, a lot of this is about money, status, women cars, jury, whatever. But to me, this is my purpose. There's nothing else in the world I could do. I've tried. Right.

It didn't work out yet.

This is it. You know what I'm saying? And I'm all in. And Every day. It's like nothing comes before my purpose, but my key isn't God. But it's just like I'm locked in because I know that I have to navigate this very well because this is a real shot. From where I'm coming from. What I've been through, people don't make it. I lost more than I ever gained. And that's people, too, as well. And when you see that and you get in a position like this, I'm blessed. I get up, I get to do what I love. I get to live this. I made my life like a vacation. You know what I'm saying? Of course, I got to work, but at the same time, I'm still able to touch people. I'm still able to push the envelope. I'm still being able to do things on my terms because I started off betting on myself. So me going out on this orchestra tour and putting my own money and my own team behind it is unheard of. It was independent. You know what I'm saying? Wow. You don't even hear about stuff like that. But all that came from the beginning.

Right. Because it sounds like you just said, it seems like that's always what you do. Right.

Now, taking it to Vegas and doing this 100, that's all me. I don't have to ask anybody for permission.

How did you get that deal with Planet Hollywood? Did you go to them and say, I want to do this collaboration?

Yeah, they saw everything that was going on. They would have been crazy not to.

I was going to say, why did they get the lucky ones? Why did they get it?

They saw the vision. They saw the vision. Clearly. They was like, We understand. And they're I love Planet Hollywood. I think that they just really understood what we was doing. And it was like, No, this perfectly works with our brand. We align. The venue is perfect for the size of the orchestra. I wanted this new equipment in there, new sound.

I was going to say, how big is it in the Planet Hollywood area?

They hold about 5,900.

Okay, because that's a big... That's a huge orchestra. A hundred pieces is a lot.

For me, it's like, well, the 101 is to celebrate 101, the 20 years of it. And it's never been done, so why not do it? I was telling my team earlier the day that somebody going to come beat us, they got to do 150, 170. That's on them. Let them figure that out.

Well, exactly. But I was reading your stuff yesterday, and someone was behind me. They're like, Wow, he's bringing orchestra. It actually stops people in their tracks because nobody... That is very unexpected. People don't normally bring an orchestra of that caliber and that size. So It is something that... I don't know how people can top that unless they bring 150 pieces. There's not much else you can do.

And the thing that I love about it is we already got the proof of concept because we took it around the world and we've seen what it is, and we didn't come to the West Coast. So this is strictly for the West Coast and anybody else that wanted to come. So we're talking the Bay, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Denver, wherever you're at. Just come out. We want to make it an experience. Come on, bro. You're Black Tucks.

Does people have to actually dress in Black Tye?

.

When you did the world tour, how many places did you go? 23 cities. 23. And for 39 pieces, how many people were in? What size theaters were they? Four thousand. Four thousand? Sold out, though. Sold out. But I was going to say people had to wear a black tie in there, too.

And they did. It was nothing like seeing people bringing their son. Like, I brought my son. He's 21. He wanted to come see you. Got on a suit. He's so happy because where we come from, you only wear suits for court and funerals. That's what I'm So it's just like this is a celebration. You're not just celebrating 20 years of my first time. You're celebrating 20 years of you. 20 years ago, you wasn't wearing a suit. I wasn't wearing a suit. A Dickey suit, but not a suit. And not just that. You want to see people celebrate it and you want them to feel good about themselves. I mean, it's nothing like seeing these Black men in these suits because this is a feeling. Everybody's dressed like you and you're looking good and you ain't brought this suit out to your closet for years since you got married, probably. And you bring it in and you put it on and your girl was dressing up. And it was like so many couples that came. And it was people that was flying in from out of the country. People landed from Switzerland like an hour ago and they were running straight to the show and people coming from Africa and all these places.

Yeah, That's amazing.

That is amazing. Yeah. I want to take a quick break from this episode to thank our sponsor, Therisage. Their Tri-Light Panel has become my favorite biohacking thing for healing my body. It's a portable red light panel that I simply cannot live without. I literally bring it with me everywhere I go, and I personally use their red light therapy to help reduce inflammations in places in my body where, honestly, I have pain. You can use it on a sore back, stomach cramps, shoulder, ankle. Red light therapy is my go-to. Plus, it also has amazing anti-aging benefits, including reducing missing signs of fine lines and wrinkles on your face, which I also use it for. I personally use Therassage Trialight everywhere and all the time. It's small, it's affordable, it's portable, and it's really effective. Head over to therasage. Com right now and use code B BOLD for 15% off. This code will work site-wide. Again, head over to therassage, T-H-H-L-I-T-L-I. Com h-e-r-a-s-a-g-e. Com, and use code B BOLD for 15% off any of their products. So So what now? You're very curious, obviously, and interested in doing speaking. What would you want to speak on? What would be your topic that you think that would be what you'd want to- Self help is big to me.

Well, I can see because of all the people that you're- Mental health is big.

Entrepreneur. I know it's big for me. I think it would just be something unique, a little bit of blend of all that. You know what I'm saying? Because like I said, I'm a sponge. I literally get up and listen to... You name it. I'm in, I'm dialed in, and I'm reading the books, but I love it. And there's nothing better for me. If I can quit my job, I'll be a student for life. That'll be my job. I'll be a student forever. If I can quit my job. And then also I love being able to help my people problem-solve. If it's somebody that I'm close to, somebody that I work with, somebody that's a peer or something, I'm like a safe place to land where you can come. I'm a vault, and we can have these conversations, and there's no judgment. You know what I'm saying? Because I've done the work, so I'm good with me. I'm in a place where nothing bothers me really no more. It ain't about my kids or anything about my family. I'm fine, but it's like I'm not in a place where I'm angry at anything. I'm taking the time to take care of myself.

If I get too caught up, I know how to go away and get centered. I could sit somewhere by myself for a month and nobody even know where I'm at. And I could just be there and I could just be journaling and hiking and cooking and listening sitting in the jazz and drinking wine. I could do my thing, and then I come back and I'm ready. I'm like, Okay, what we need, what we need to do.

What was that thing in your life, though, that did that reset for you? That you became so passionate and interested in self-help and evolving really, as a human being. Personal development, I would say.

I think it's always been there.

Because you're always curious.

Yeah, but I just think what really gave me the edge on it is, shout out to my dad. He was in the military. So I lived abroad Most of my younger life. So when I was young, I lived in Hawaii, Japan. My sushi game is impeccable. I'm the best of that. But it gave me a world-class lens on things. So when my parents divorced and I had to move back to the neighborhood, I just didn't understand why people couldn't see past the neighborhood. And that frustrated me so much because I'm like, There's beaches out there. There's people that don't even look like us. They're like, What are you talking about? I'm like, Man, there's a world out there, and nobody believed me.

Because you had a sneak peek a little bit. Right.

So that just upset me. And then when I started to get comfortable in where I was at, I started to realize It's things that things happen that I've never seen before. People die, people get killed, people stab each other, people hurt each other, people get kicked out, people get evicted, people get sick, they don't have an insurance. And you just like, What in the hell is going on? You just left this world where everybody's okay and everybody's figuring it out. People going to the beach on the weekends and you got friends. And I'm just like, You can't trust your friends. This is crazy. And you're hearing about people that used to run together and they was this close, and then this one killed that one. And I'm just like, what is going on? So I think a lot of that was me saying, How can I fix this? So I spent a lot of my life trying to figure out how to fix it. What do I do? How do I get involved in this? And how do I try to turn the curve? And it's just been this uphill battle of just trying to fix it.

And I had to realize one day, I can't fix nothing if I don't fix myself. And that's when I was just like, Okay, well, let me just work on me. I really change myself before I could change the world because that's going to be a harder task. And then just hope the people that align with me, that we go out here and we crusade together to do our part. But I used to have visions when I was young about how I was going to change the world. I literally knew I had to get out here and become this well-respected person so I can have some say in this. Because if not, then who better? Who really cares? Because once the money is made, the MO is to go up to the sunset. Exactly. We all want to live somewhere great, but I still want to do the work.

I know you have all these big mentors now, and you get seven questions with lots of people. What would you say the best advice has ever been, of all the things that you've heard that really made a big impact on your life?

I think the best advice that I ever got was from Dave Gibbers, one of my mentors, and he told me the education costs. It costs. It costs money. It costs pain. And one of my other mentors told me, You're not a leader if you're not in pain, because it takes pain to lead. Because I didn't understand why I was feeling the way I was feeling going through the things I was going through. And I started to really realize, Oh, I'm in this. I don't know nothing else. I couldn't wake up tomorrow and do something else. I'm in this. This is it. And I have a lot of empathy for what people go through, especially in my culture, because it's all based on data that we don't have. It's all based on resources that we don't have. It's all based on the way the world is set up and how things are. And it's just like, if you can't get out of that or people can't come into that, there's no refuge, there's no help. It's not going to come. And once I realized that nobody's coming to save you, I'm like, okay, I got to get out here and just do what I got to do.

And that's why it was so important to me to build relationships with Tony Robbins. Tony Robbins is one of the realest people I know. There's nothing he does that he doesn't call me personally and say, Hey, jeez, I'm getting ready to do another seminar How many kids you got? I want to send him some packages. I want him to come through. During the pandemic, he was sending these 20, 30, 40, 50 dollar packages for these kids to be a part of these seminars. So much so that I was able to get my family member some. I I called him for my sister, just the last one he did. She called me, I'm walking on fire. I was like, I don't know about that. You know what I'm saying? But even some of the people that I mentor, they don't have those types of relationships. And he'll literally call me. I literally was doing a bike drive, and we was talking. He's like, Why are you doing a bike drive? I said, Because I feel like if you can ride a bike, you can have freedom. You can mentally get out of where you're at in these neighborhoods, and I'm doing it for these kids.

Oh, wow. And he's like, How many bikes you're going to get? And I was like, No, I'm going to go 500. He's like, Well, I'm going to double it. And Tony Robbins sent those bikes. He sent the money to get the bikes. Really? Yeah, Tony Arual. He ain't going to play around. Every year, I've done my gala. We're doing another one this year on the ninth of October, do a gala called The Snowball, and we do it for my nonprofit, Street James Foundation. Tony Robbins donates every year. Whenever we raise, most of the time, it was just magic.

That's incredible. Is that in Atlanta, you do it? Atlanta, yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. By the way, you know what I think you should do? You take it or leave it. This is my little two cents. You should do a one-man show for your... You should launch speaking, but what you should do is a one-man show. Do you know how Mike Tyson did that on Broadway, a one-man show, and it crushed. What is it? It catapulted him into a whole other area. Did it a long time ago. It's basically a speaking engagement, but because you're so entrepreneurial and you're so business savvy, you would be doing it. And just how you would book, how you booked all your tour dates, you would book that, but you would tweak it into a different way of branding yourself because you have so much life experience. You have A lot of life experience, good stories, have a really good solid... You have the whole solid system of how you've evolved and your personal development. There's so many things you can weave into your thing, which I think can also break into other areas and genres that would be interesting for people to listen to.

I received that. I'm going to give Mike a call.

I'm telling you, you shouldn't ask him how he did. But I'm telling you, I think you would be great. I would go watch it. My friends would go because you have so much perspective in different areas and you've come so far that I think people would really like it.

I would love that.

That's what I think. Thank you for that. No, you're welcome. Well, tell people again, now you have your energy. Where's your energy drinks being sold?

We Basing it out of Georgia right now. We're going to start in Georgia for right now. We're going to work out because it's privately home.

Oh, okay. So are you going to have distribution? Yes. Everywhere.

Okay, but just right now. As of now, Eagle Rock is distributing.

Yeah, I saw that.

Yeah, so shout out to Eagle Rock. Rock. They're good people.

Shout out to you, whoever they are. If you're in Vegas or go to Vegas to see your show. And it's the information on your website. Also on Instagram. You can see everything on Instagram.

@jeezy. That's J-E-E-Z-Y. You can find me there. I'm definitely on Facebook, definitely on Twitter.

Do people get you confused with Jay-Z? Because everyone thought you said Jay-Z when I'm like, Oh, Jayzee.

Jayzee. Yeah, that's my good friend. The only... Similar. It's crazy. By the way, he's another one that's in my advisory board.

Oh, really? No, no. Of course, I know. I'm just saying it's very similar. Jay-z, Jay-Z. You know what I mean? It sounds very similar.

He's dope. But yeah- You're dope, too.

Thank you.

You're welcome. But yeah, definitely the residency, this is going to be special. Just so you know, out there in TV land, if you come, come witness it, but also come be a part of history. This is going down to history. Nobody's done this. This is going to be amazing. The Color of Noise Orchestra is something amazing.

I want to see this thing. You should come. I want to go.

We're going to get you a ticket. Two of them.

You're good. Okay, there you go. But I'm going to hold you to that, Gigi.

No, you're good.

Okay, I'll get you a bike for your group.

The album will be out. I don't know when this is airing, but it should be out by the time. Still snowing.

When's your album? What's the date of the album?

928. I'm putting it out on my birthday actually.

Oh, like coming up right now? Yeah. It's your birthday, 928? Oh, mine's September 16th. Are you a Virgo then? Libra. A Libra. Okay, you just missed it. Okay. Wow. Okay. You have a lot of things going on. And this one-man show that you're going to now do, right?

Yeah. We're going to set it up for 26. There you go.

Thank you so much for being on. Thank you for having me. Bye-bye.. Michelle.