Published: Thursday - December 7, 2006
Words by Lauren Carter
Obie Trice (Photo: Interscope)
Obie Trice wants you to spend Christmas with the Shady Records family. Actually, he's ordering you to. "Open up that motherf---in' package before you open up all your Christmas presents, throw that CD in, and unwrap your gifts to the sound of the Shady family," the 29-year-old rapper said in an interview with BallerStatus.com.
"That CD" is, of course, Eminem Presents: The Re-Up, over 20 cuts that started as a mixtape and ended up as a compilation, or as Trice called it a "mixtape slash compilation slash mixtape-compilation-mixtape."
Along with Trice and other hip-hop heavyweights like 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks and Eminem, the album features members of D12 and newcomers Bobby Creekwater, Stat Quo and Cashis. Production comes from Eminem, Dr. Dre and The Alchemist, who compiled the album "in true mixtape fashion," among others.
"It just came about, everybody was just like 'f--- it man, y'all want to do a mixtape?' And we was like, 'f--- it, let's do a mixtape.'" said Trice. "We was all in one room... we just did it right there and we did it that day."
While The Re-Up isn't a dedication to Proof, the D12 member who was slain in April of this year (see "D12's Proof Shot And Killed At Detroit Club"), Trice said Proof's death did influence the album. "He influenced it a lot because we just had to all collectively do something to really... get past the whole situation and keep working," he said. "Motherf---ers were sick about that, it was a real bad moment. We had a dark cloud over our heads, and we just had to get past that whole thing and the best way to do it was to make music, do what we love to do."
The kind of violence that claimed Proof is nothing new for Trice, who had his own brush with death on New Year's Eve of last year (see "Obie Trice Shot While Driving On Detroit Freeway"), after he was shot by an unknown assailant for reasons he still hasn't uncovered.
"That sh-- was foul as hell," he said. "I'm on the freeway, a car pulled up and just started dumping in my vehicle and like the fifth bullet hit me in the back of the skull." Doctors told him if the bullet had been less than an inch deeper it would have killed him. The bullet hasn't been removed yet for fear of causing more damage.
Still, Trice said those events haven't necessarily changed his perspective on life, beyond making him more cautious. "My n----s been getting killed since we was 14, so I've been knowing that life ain't promised for a long time," he said.
Issues like these do make their way onto The Re-Up on songs like "Cry Now (Remix)" and "Pistol, Pistol (Remix)," which Trice calls a "vengeance song." But, he said the tightest song on the album is one he appears on with newcomer Cashis, called "We Ride For Shady."
"Once that sh-- really hit and n----s can go buy that album, I guarantee you 'We Ride for Shady' be the most played song on that motherf---ing record," he said. "I guarantee you, because it's so gangsta, the beat is crazy. It's one of them songs, people are going to love that record."
Trice talked about a possible tour with the Shady family to promote The Re-Up and said he is working on bringing the Obie Trice brand to the next level. "I still ain't the superstar I want to be," he said. "I think I can be that n---- you always see on TV all the time, but I'm going to get there. This is just the beginning ... I got a whole bunch of albums left in me."
Trice's next project is tentatively called Bottoms Up in keeping with the drinking theme of his album titles -- his debut album was titled Cheers and his sophomore album was Second Round's on Me, released this August.
"My crew, we drink, that's what we do. I come from a family of alcoholics. Some motherf---ers got crackheads... my peoples is alcoholics, this sh-- is in my blood," he said. "That's what I know, that's what I come from, so I put it out there."
As far as having to re-establish the Shady brand of hip-hop with the influx of so many Southern acts on the radio right now, Trice said "hell nah" to that concept.
"We innovators of hip-hop. I mean, Atlanta is doing it right now and the South is doing it, that's a good thing, hip-hop is evolving," he said. "That's how hip-hop, if you know the history of hip-hop music, hip-hop music goes in cycles. Sometimes in history, the West Coast had it banging, then it moves to the South, then it moves to the East, it's a rotating thing.
"But Shady reestablishing itself, hell nah, it's a wrap. We're just re-in up, we're just putting out some stocking stuffers," he said. "We're making y'all holidays happier. This is our Christmas present to the world right here."
For more on Obie Trice, visit MySpace.com/ObieTrice. Obie says: hit him up on MySpace and let him know you read this story and bought The Re-Up and Second Round's On Me and he'll "do favors."
For more on The Re-Up, visit Myspace.com/shadyrecords
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