"I knew I'd do well in the streets, but I didn't think I'd do so well in the mainstream," he said. "A lot of people can't handle the truth."

Apparently they can. The album sold nearly 2 million copies at

a time when a third of that was considered impressive. And fans weren't buying just his music. Jeezy, also known as the Snowman - a reference to his days as a cocaine dealer - had listeners sporting T-shirts featuring sinister-looking Frosties.

His second album, "The Inspiration," again offers snapshots of life knee-deep in Atlanta's mean streets. The rapper, a self-professed "perfectionist," said he recorded 120 songs and chose what he believed were the best 16 for the album.

His drug-dealing days remain at center stage. "Jeezy likes to drink/Jeezy likes to smoke/Jeezy likes to mix Arm & Hammer with his coke," he rhymes on "J.E.E.Z.Y."

Jeezy would be the first to tell you that he's not a rapper's rapper. There are no complex rhyme schemes or clever metaphors, just the facts of his life served over provocative beats and in between memorable ad libs.

"I'm not trying to be the greatest rapper alive," he said. "I just wanted people to hear what we in the streets are going through, hear the stories of the people locked up, the people that ain't here no more."

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Antonio Reid, chairman of Universal's Island Def Jam unit, the parent company of Jeezy's label, said: "Strangely enough, for him it's very important that he grows gradually. He doesn't want to grow leaps and bounds. If people buy into him, then wonderful, but he won't make an effort to appeal to the masses."

Reid has encouraged Jeezy to open up more. So on tracks like "Dreamin'," his most introspective work to date, he offers listeners a glimpse at the man behind the dark shades and gruff exterior. He recalls the drug addiction his mother once battled. ("She's been clean for 10 years, so she's still my lady," he rhymes.)

One of his biggest inspirations growing up, he said, was his grandmother, a walking contradiction. She was both a devout Christian and a sassy numbers runner.

"She went to church every Sunday and was always the best-dressed woman, but she got her money," he said laughing. "She definitely got her money."

She died before she could see his success.

"I never got a chance to tell her how I felt about her," he said.

Jeezy decided to pursue a career in rap because he didn't believe that the street tales being peddled by his contemporaries were true to life. "These guys would be on TV telling their stories, and it just wasn't adding up to me. It wasn't being represented right."

He said he quit selling drugs, "cold turkey," at that time.

"It didn't seem right for me anymore, like it wasn't my calling. I felt like I served my time. I passed the class with flying colors. I know the streets better than I know myself. It was time for me to turn my back on all of that."

He formed a crew, United Street D-Boys of America, and a label, Corporate Thugz Entertainment. He released his first independent album, "Thuggin' Under the Influence," in 2001 under the name Lil J. In 2003 he released (also independently) "Come Shop Wit Me." After two successful mixtapes ("Tha Streetz iz Watchin'" and "Trap or Die"), he became a local phenomenon. Island Def Jam signed him, and soon after Jay-Z, president of Def Jam, was calling Jeezy "a movement."

Though he still owns a house in his old neighborhood, Jeezy now lives in a gated community in the Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta, where he says the biggest problem is a neighbor with a noisy Harley-Davidson. Few of his friends have escaped his old haunts.

"There are a lot my homeboys that I'll never see again," he said quietly.

He's convinced that his day-to-day life hasn't changed much.

"I travel more, buy a few more cars, spend a little more at the strip clubs," he said. But there are moments when he realizes that nothing is like it used to be. Last summer he was invited to Reid's lavish 50th birthday party in Manhattan, where the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Janet Jackson, Spike Lee and Lionel Richie partied into the wee hours.

"I was in the room with all those people, and they weren't scared of me," said Jeezy, who wore a blazer for the first time in his life for the occasion. He had truly arrived, he said. "At the places I'm used to partying, you've always got to look over your shoulder." Later that evening, after Reid and friends had retired, Jeezy rode up to Harlem with his crew in tow. "And I kept my blazer on," he said, grinning.