Jeezy said stories on CNN, in USA Today and in other outlets were uninformed and one-sided in their reporting on his Snowman shirts. “It’s not Frosty’s evil twin,” an article on CNN.com reads. “The image popularized by drug-dealer-turned-rapper Young Jeezy symbolizes those who sell a white substance known on the street as snow: cocaine.”

“To be honest with you, it never meant anything,” Jeezy explained. “It meant what we stand for. It’s ours, it’s the streets. CNN ain’t got nothing to do with it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not changing, but I never said the Snowman meant ‘Go outside and sell some drugs.’ The Snowman is my alter ego. I made it out of the ‘hood. I’m not a rap star, I’m not a superstar, I’m a trap star. That’s who I am.”

The Snowman is “the only thing we have that belongs to us,” he continued, “our culture and our way of life. You can’t hide that. I’m not finnin’ to go on TV and say, ‘[The Snowman] stands for this or that,’ it’s none of your business. It stands for whatever you want it to stand for, it could stand or Christmastime or whatever. But in the ‘hood, it stands for ‘You know what, he’s just like me. You can’t ban the Snowman, he is what I am. He came from where I came from.’ “