Soul Survivor - Young Jeezy featuring Akon (Def Jam)

Atlanta, Georgia rapper Young Jeezy is scoring his first major pop hit with this tune featuring a sweetly sung chorus from Akon. The solid, dark beats and hypnotic chorus easily wind their way into your brain, but Jeezy's story is unrelentingly bleak.

Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy records both as a solo artist and with the group Boyz N Da Hood. His first solo album Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 100 debuted on the Billboard album chart at #2 in July, 2005. "Soul Survivor" is his first solo single to climb the pop singles chart.

Like much of Jeezy's work, "Soul Survivor" details life on the streets as a drug dealer. The clarity of voice and imagery in Young Jeezy's storytelling is impressive. He unleashes a potent societal indictment in the words "They lock us in cages / The same nigga that's a star when you put 'em on stages." Unfortunately, Young Jeezy gives no signs of hope for change in the relentlessly bleak world he describes on "Soul Survivor."

The sweet voice of singer Akon on the chorus makes "Soul Survivor" stick in the mind. This is just the latest collaboration that has featured his vocals. In addition to "Soul Survivor," he is currently on the pop charts collaborating with Baby Bash on "Baby I'm Back" and in his own "Belly Dancer (Bananza)."