It’s hard to imagine what Young Jeezy’s legacy will look like whenever he stops rapping.  His influence is certainly undeniable.  He’s nowhere near the first rapper from Atlanta to hit it big, but he’s the pioneer of the hoarse-voiced, “the lyrics don’t really matter that much as long as they sound terrifying” ATL flow that Gucci Mane and Waka Flocka Flame use to attack microphones.  At the moment, Jeezy is considered one of the most respectable emcees in the game (even if there is some confusion over whether he ever dropped the “Young” from his name), and more than six years after releasing his major debut, he’s still one of the most sought-after guest artists for hip-hop’s top hit makers.  His own records don’t light up the charts to nearly the same degree, but one suspects that is a direct result of Jeezy’s decision to remain as “street” as possible.

Surely no one would be surprised at reading a review calling The Real Is Back 2 the hardest collection of music the writer had heard all year.  After all, Jeezy wants this to be a “street mixtape,” released for free, aimed at the most hardcore hip-hop fans, intended to build buzz for his upcoming album, Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition.  Look at it this way: If you were trying to intimidate everyone who lived in your neighborhood, you would roll slowly down the street blasting TRIB2 of your car stereo until your subwoofer exploded and you were forced to high-tail it out of sight.  There is actually a song about doing just this on the tape (the appropriately-titled “Sittin’ Low”).

In that sense, the tape succeeds, but it won’t exceed any expectations.  The lyrics, while mostly irrelevant, are about exactly the topics you’d expect: dealing drugs, having excessive amounts of money, and being a generally frightening person.  Truth be told, Jeezy could rap in Klingon about kittens and panda bears and it would sound thuggish.  The lack of validity or basis in reality of claims such as “I paid for my Lamborghini with my ashtray” doesn’t really matter when Jeezy rasps them.  This wouldn’t be such an issue, except basically every track has a guest artist who lacks Jeezy’s charisma (Birdman comes closest; what does that say?).  When the best guest spot on your mixtape is DJ Drama screaming unintentionally hilarious ad-libs, it doesn’t impress the listener so much as remind them of LeBron James dunking on a ten-year-old.

The Real Is Back 2 will no doubt be embraced by hydraulics aficionados who can possibly relate while littering the #drugdealerproblems Twitter hashtag with lines like “I thought I lost my rocks/Took my J’s off and they was in my socks.” But for the more mainstream rap listener who bristled at the Waka Flocka Flame reference, even a fan of past DJ Drama sequels Dedication 2 and There Is No Competition 2, The Real Is Back 2 probably goes a little too hard in the paint to be enjoyable.