J. Cole - Who Dat
What's random but interesting to me is that one of these songs is "rap" and the other is straight "hip-hop" if you really think about it. J. Cole is miles beyond Jeezy in terms of lyrical ability but Jeezy's song has a vibe that I really enjoy. Songs like "Hood Politics" are the reason I like rappers like Jeezy, Rick Ross, and other rappers who wouldn't be considered true emcees by a lot of people north of the Mason-Dixon line. Artists like Ross, and Jeezy have a way of making songs that resonate either through the production or just the "feeling" of the song. I can't articulate it very well but fans of those guys probably know what I mean.
Nowadays, I tend to view hip-hop as a pretty diverse genre of music with many sub-genre's that encompass just about every style of hip-hop/rap one can enjoy. For me, that's part of the beauty of the evolution of hip-hop but I can also understand why so-called hip-hop "purists" don't really like some of the newer artists (especially southern artists, lol). There's no stopping the evolution of hip-hop and that's probably a good thing but what would make it even better is more conscious or semi-conscious hip-hop/rap coming back into the mainstream. Unfortunately, it seems like those artists are relegated to the underground or the InterWeb.
P.S. - It looks like me and Drizzy both like the Jeezy joint.