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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.

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RapReviews.com

Jeezy manages to keep a strong unified album together without ever getting monotonous or tired.

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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.

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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."

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Slant Magazine

There's a unique pleasure in hearing a once one-dimensional rapper discover complexity, and for that Recession is nearly indispensable.

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PopMatters

With the expectations set high, The Recession doesn’t disappoint, though as with any of his albums, it would benefit from some truncation.

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Village Voice

His first two albums were well-crafted, uncompromising in their focus, and exceptionally entertaining. The Recession makes it three.

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The Guardian

The album touches upon economic issues without dwelling on them, and it captures the spirit of the times with an unerring precision.

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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.

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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.

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The Wire

Jeezy may have the most charismatic voice in rap now--a fierce but fine-gravel shout that hits your ears soft like a whisper--and his beat selection remains pitch perfect--but Jeezy still doesn't realise that selling drugs was good only for Jeezy. He's a cartoon, a proforma thug, and when he tries to relate he fails miserably. [Dec 2008, p.74]

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Paste Magazine

The Recession's singles are exceptional, but the filler suffers from a detached and dispirited sound.

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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

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Tiny Mix Tapes

The Recession, then, is a portrait of the artist as an over-his-head young man.

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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.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

sean van pelt gave it a10:
Ridiculously low critic rating.. this is one of the best rap albums in years.

max m gave it an8:
Seriously!? Hustlers Ambition is one of the best songs on there along with What they want and taking it there....this is an awesome album, yes there are some stupid songs like everything (thanks to lil boosie) but overall this album is way better than people give credit

Kenwaun F. gave it a10:
The album demonstrates Jeezy's ability to blend real hood talk with political awareness and above average rap skills. The Recession is better than both of his previous albums. He is one of the best!

Adel U. gave it a10:
This CD is perfect. It brings back memorys by changing a few words from the song that Tupac wrote, it talks about politics, it talks about real life situations, not random trash like most of the rappers now-a-days. The Bass is intense, I almost blew up my sub-woofer at my computer desk :P His voice is also addicting to hear, it has a weird flow to it that makes you want to listen more and more... I have bought all of his CD's and I am SURE that this is the best one.

w w gave it a10:
This is hard, forget what the critics are talking about. Jeezy doing it, from the bottom to the top. Let the man shine.

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!!!!

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The Recession

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