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Blessed
with the chameleon-like ability to flip from a booty-shakin party starter
to head-bussin hooligan to insightful educator, Miami bad boy Trick Daddy
has been one of the most prolific southern talents since he first stepped
onto the scene on Uncle Luke's timeless 1996 dance floor staple, "Scarred."
Within the eight calendars that T-Double-D has been putting in work, he has
spawned five solo albums, four gold and platinum plaques and a bevy of ghetto
hymnals. Generating such diverse hits as battle of the sexes "Na'an"
with female agitator Trina, light-hearted ditty "Shut Up" and socially
aware "Amerika," Trick Daddy hoisted himself from the Southern underground
to national admiration.
Now, after a two-year hiatus since his 2002 testament, Thug Holiday, Trick
returns to prove his undying love for the grind and ties the knot on his sixth
solo Slip-N-Slide/Atlantic outing, Thug Matrimony: Married To The Streets.
"If you evaluate the stuff I
said in my past five albums, I kept it real
from day one. It's easy to keep it real; that way, you won't get caught up
in being a fake," Trick explains.
Born Maurice Young in Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital and reared on the
wrong side of the tracks, the artist formerly known as Trick Daddy Dollars
has seen his share of trying times. As one of 27 children between his mother
and father, Trick got more ass whippings than lectures during his formative
years.
"I come from a big family. All of us are different and got our own ways,"
says Trick. "My daddy (is) a real street nigga. My momma is from Carolina,
so she growed up in the struggle. My momma got 11 children from 10 different
men. My daddy got 16 sons from all kinds of women.
"My momma met my daddy in Miami. Both of them are hood; they are ghetto.
If my momma and daddy would've stayed together, one of them would've been
dead, and the other would've been locked up for it."
Although Trick wasn't born with a silver spoon dangling from his gold baby
teeth, he absorbed every lesson that his parents embedded in him. But instead
of letting the ghetto that surrounded him take him under, the Liberty City
survivor made the most out of an unpleasant situation. "A lotta black
folks learn to tell jokes to better deal with their problems, and that's how
I learned to deal with my problems growing up," he enlightens. "We
growed up hard in the projects, on welfare and food stamps. So instead of
going to school and have somebody talk about my momma on food stamps or welfare,
I would tell them 'my momma gotta go get recertified for her food stamps'
or 'we gone trade these food stamps in and go get in the dice game.' I learned
to laugh and joke at myself, so before you know it, they're on my side. They're
waiting on me to crack on somebody else."
Naturally, he imparts those same self-taught life lessons within his rhymes.
Over the soulful, mid-tempo production of "Trapped," Trick warns
of the revolving prison system for too many young African-American men who
fall victim to Americanism. On the moving chorus, Ronald Isley wails: "No
matter how loud I cry, it don't seem loud enough/ Lord, I hope you're hearing
me/ This goes out to the lonely streets."
On the uplifting, R&B-ish testimony "These Are the Days," Trick
borrows heart-felt sentient from MC Lyte's unforgettable verse from "Self
Destruction." In his signature burly baritone, he spits: "Leave
the guns and the crack and the knives alone/ It's T-Double on the microphone/
And I can see trouble right in front your home/ As far as the kids are concerned/
Just let em live and learn/ And let em grow to be older than us/ And teach
em more than gang banging, drug dealing and hold ups... / They gone love and
respect us/ And now you're having more doctors, lawyers, teachers, preachers
and deep sea explorers."
"Rappers tend to use words sometimes that just rhyme and don't really
mean nothing. I tell it like it t-i-is. I tell it like I see it. I tell it
like I vision it. I tell it like I live it. It ain't no fantasy raps in here,
" Trick enlightens. "I would be more of a rock and roll (musician)
or heavy metal or the blues than I am a rapper."
His rock and roll roots are definitely felt over the blaring lead single "Let's
Go." Riding an intense sample of heavy metal madman Ozzy Osborne's cult
classic "Crazy Train," Trick opens the ceremony with ATL hype man
Lil Jon and Chi-town's finest Twista. The threesome gets crunk as they bellow
over piercing guitar riffs and hammering bass.
On the old school-tinged "Down South," the Dade County veteran takes
it back to the days of the Pac-Jam with club hoppers Ying Yang Twins and female
nemesis Trina. Over a witty re-working of Midnight Star's 80s hit "No
Parking on the Dance Floor," they pay homage to their beloved Dirty South.
Letting his sensitive side seep to the surface, Trick teams up with Jazze
Pha on the mid-tempo serenade "Forever." Looming over funky electric
piano chords and an interpolation of Smokey Robinson's classic "Cruisin,"
Jazze offers Sunday morning purring on the hook.
And on "Sugar On The Tongue" featuring Ludacris and Cee-Lo crooning
on hook, Trick gets his freak on accompanied by country acoustic guitar strums.
Comparing women to juicy fruits, he licks: "Orally I speak the truth/
Blacker the berry/ the sweeter the juice/ Florida oranges and Georgia peaches/
When they're nice and ripe/ They're the best for eating/ Southern boys- they
be craving for a old/ Slice of pie after their main course."
On the floss-heavy "That's How We Ride," Trick enjoys the compensation
for his labor. Beside self-proclaimed king of the south T.I., the duo spit
game of digital dashboards in "Beemers and Benzes and Hummers and Chevys"
atop old school 808 claps and the theme from horror flick "Halloween."
Packed with more bang than an ass full of hemorrhoids, Thug Matrimony: Married
To The Streets is truly Trick Daddy's finest work to date. Marrying thought-provoking
prose with real life heartbreak and guaranteed party favorites, Trick has
truly outdone himself with a match made in thug heaven.
CHECK OUT THE MEDIA PLAYER!
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