Adversity for Sale: Ya Gotta Believe

by Jeezy

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES and WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER

To Jeezy’s legion of fans, his name is synonymous with hustle, grit, and the integrity to go out there and achieve your dreams. In his first book, Adversity for Sale: Ya Gotta Believe, Jeezy shares never heard stories of what it took for him to beat the odds and get out of the streets, his mindset he carefully honed to get an edge, and the lessons that changed his life and business.

Born into poverty and raised in a small town in the middle of South Georgia’s so-called “Black belt,” Jeezy realized at an early age that nothing was going to come easy, there were no handouts headed his way, and if he ever wanted anything in life, he was going to have to get out there and get it on his own. So that’s what he did.

Now, for the first time, Jeezy retraces his steps, going back to day one to share how he turned nothing into something, stayed solid, survived the trap, and triumphed over adversity to become the successful artist, father, husband, entrepreneur, and philanthropist that he is today.

Adversity for Sale isn’t a street memoir. Like his music, these pages are filled with lessons from his deeply personal story to motivate you to go out and get after your dream.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781400236251
Publisher:	HarperCollins Leadership
Publication date:	08/08/2023
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	8,791
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins is a Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum recording artist, businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Editorial Reviews

2023-09-19
For a rapper as focused as Jeezy, with a recognizable, detailed style, his engaging memoir is a surprising hodgepodge.

Even passing hip-hop fans are aware of Jeezy (previously known as Young Jeezy) and his former exploits as a drug dealer, which he chronicled regularly in his music. The author revisits those tales in rich detail here, revealing how he started dealing marijuana at an early age on his aunt’s porch, with his cousins as his first suppliers. “On the block, on my bike, posted up on the corner of Poplar Street or with Gold Mouth in his car overnight—wherever, whenever, whatever. I was constantly serving, hustling nonstop,” he writes of his early days of drug dealing. Throughout, he ably captures the lifestyle—not just the cars and the money, but also the anxiety and paranoia. While the storytelling is mostly gripping, a couple of times, Jeezy reaches a cliffhanger worthy of a TV finale with car chases and armed confrontations and then notes, “let me just stop right there because I could go on and on. Like I said, everything that happened in Macon could fill a whole other book.” Why couldn’t it fill this book? The author seemed determined to make this a cross between a memoir and an advice book. Unfortunately, his advice is often banal: “I’d always tell people whenever you feel stuck, just take one simple step in any direction. It doesn’t matter, just get moving; and then once you start moving, just keep taking those steps and keep going. You’ll be amazed at how far you can go.” The outcome of the car chase or more about why the FBI staked out his house would make for better reading.

Jeezy shows that his grand storytelling abilities extend beyond music in this entertaining yet uneven book.

Kirkus Reviews