The National Bureau of Economic Research defines a recession as a significant decline in economic activity that lasts more than a few months. Sex workers, drug dealers, boosters — anyone who traffics in illicit behavior — they don’t need official word from the government to see what’s happening. They know that when money gets tight, vices are the first to be abandoned. So it’s not surprising that Young Jeezy, one of the defining gangsta rappers of the 21st century, released his third major-label album, The Recession, on September 2nd, 2008, about three months before the NBER would declare one of the largest economic crises in U.S. history.
