Things are looking up for Jeezy. The hard-nosed rapper has been hustling for years and, while the grind is certainly still alive, he is prepared to settle down a touch. It was announced that the 42-year-old star had proposed to The Real host Jeannie Mai, planning a romantic quarantine date night and bringing a Vietnamese feast to their home. 

It’s not only the rapper’s personal life that is striving. His music career is also still pretty major. Although the release of his new project Twenty/20 Pyrex Vision wasn’t critically received as he had hoped, it was much easier to push the collection of music into the world because, as revealed in a new interview with Ebro Darden for Rap Life on Apple Music, Jeezy is now an independent artist.

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“I love that now you can be innovative and go about this in a different way because you don’t need to take the same path you used to take,” said Jeezy about his new journey as an independent artist. 

As it pertains to his favorite thing about working without a major label, Jeezy says that the ability to do whatever he pleases is what enticed him to go this route. “The freedom and being able to move without a lot of politics…I’m able to feed my fans without overthinking the process of it,” he added.

Watch the video interview below. Congratulations to Jeezy on all of his life’s success!

Often, “Old Heads” in hip hop are criticized for not giving new generations of artists the benefit of the doubt. As generations grow and evolve, there will always be some hint of division, but elders have complained that some youngsters aren’t giving them the respect they deserve. This isn’t an absolute, because Lil Baby made it clear that he may have achieved more than others at his age, but it doesn’t mean their successes should be compared.

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During a recent chat with Ebro Darden for Rap Life, the radio and podcast host mentioned Jay Z in the conversation. Ebro noted that Lil Baby is 25-years-old with all of his success, adding that Jay hadn’t even released his classic debut album Reasonable Doubt at his age (Hov was 26 when he shared that album). “I can’t compare myself to nobody in that gap ’cause it is a lotta more sh*t nowadays,” Baby said. “I got a whole Instagram with 10 million followers. No way Jay Z and them had [that]. It’s so many different ways where I won’t even let that get ‘caught in my head.”

“I’m smart enough to know it wasn’t the same avenues, either,” he added. “So I won’t even put that type of sh*t in my head.” Lil Baby also talked about wanting to have $100 million in the bank within five years, remaining focused so he doesn’t go down the wrong path in his career, creating his hit album My Turn, and being included on the Queen & Slim soundtrack. Check out the interview below.