Jeezy made a special stop in Detroit yesterday, Nov. 8, but instead of performing his music, the rapper delivered words of encouragement to youths at the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Center.
According to Vibe, Jeezy said he sympathized with the those children and teenagers, aged 8 to 19, who were incarcerated.
"I had my share of trouble. I been in detention centers around the world. I was in alternative school, the whole nine," he said. "But once you get to a certain age, you realize that life is bigger than what your surroundings are."
Jeezy does, after all, have a lengthy rap sheet. He has been arrested multiple times in connection to shootings and was arrested in January for an altercation that occurred two years earlier with his son.
"Sometimes it's about not being well-off," he added. "I wasn't well-off and I thank God for that because I'm able to take all the things that I earned and be proud of them because I got out here as a man, I grinded up myself to get to where I'm at."
The rapper also gave the kids a few pieces of wisdom regarding life.
"Detroit is not an easy city," he said. "I'm sitting here looking at y'all — you've got some serious looks on your faces. I can only imagine what half of y'all's stories are. But when you sit down and think about it, all of our stories are the same: We just want to be successful, take care of our loved ones and do the things we love in life."
Jeezy's seventh studio effort, Seen It All: The Autobiography, came out in September. He is currently working on a joint album with T.I.
Readers: What did you think of Jeezy's speech? Do you think it will have any effect of the youth he spoke to? Could you relate to it? Comment below.
