My Gut Reaction: Obie Trice - Bottoms Up (April 3, 2012)

Obie Trice III, a couple of years removed from his, er, voluntary removal from the Shady Records roster, released his third full-length solo album, Bottoms Up, in the spring of 2012. Sticking with the theme of getting blackout drunk that all of his projects’ titles have followed (including his actual third “album”, the MoSS collaboration Special Reserve), Bottoms Up finds our hero trolling the streets of Detroit looking for problems, women, and, as I’ve noticed after having listened to this album roughly a year ago but am just now writing the opening paragraphs for this review, an explanation as to why he was treated so poorly by the Shady/Aftermath/Interscope machine.

Not entirely certain he’ll ever get an answer for that.

My Gut Reaction: Obie Trice - Special Reserve (December 15, 2009)

I've always felt kind of sorry for Detroit-based rapper Obie Trice. While it's true that he was lucky enough to score a deal with a major label, something that a lot of people are never able to accomplish within their lifetimes, he was never treated as an equal amongst his peers. Eminem signed Obie to his Shady Records imprint in 2000, even going so far as to briefly feature him on both The Eminem Show and D-12's Devil's Night, but the moment that Marshall signed Curtis Jackson to the label, all of the marketing focus was shifted away from the man actually born with the name Obie Trice, forcing him to scramble on his own to finish up his own debut album, Cheers, which was released in 2003 with little to no interest. Obie would go out of his way to pledge his allegiance to Shady Records, but the favor was never returned (I don't count Marshall including Obie on Eminem Presents The Re-Up, since he was contractually obligated to do that shit.) Cheers was loaded with A-list talent, including big names such as Busta Rhymes, Dr. Dre, DJ Muggs, Timbaland, and Em himself, but Obie was never able to capitalize on these favors by jumping onto any of their own albums (save for Em, but, once again, contractual obligations are a bitch). 50 Cent appeared on Cheers (alongside his fellow G-Unit tool Lloyd Banks); did he allow Obie Trice more exposure and an opportunity to impress a wider audience by offering him a guest slot on The Massacre? Fuck no he didn't; why would he? As it became blatantly obvious that the only artist on Shady Records that Marshall Mathers cared about (after Curtis imploded, anyway) was himself, it barely registered that Obie Trice severed ties with them: I assume that the majority of the hip hop audience had been under the impression that Obie was dropped from the label long after his sophomore release, Second Round's On Me, tanked.

Unsurprisingly, Obie is currently attempting a comeback, promising that his third album, the as-yet-unreleased Bottoms Up, will be a return to form, a form that most hip hop heads will be unfamiliar with, as Obie's name didn't even appear on the radar until after Marshall signed him. I have no idea if the man will actually succeed in his quest to win over an increasingly fickle audience: our chosen genre has a relatively short attention span, and given the response some of his teaser singles have been receiving when they hit the other blogs, I'm not even sure if the interest exists to begin with. Hell, I don't think that even this post will garner that many comments. But I still believe that this project is worth mentioning.

In 2009, Obie Trice unleashed Special Reserve, a compilation album whose title keeps with his ongoing theme of having album names that remind you of getting shitfaced. It's a short collection of tracks he recorded between the years 1997-2000, before his Shady deal, with Canadian producer MoSS, who just so happens to be the first producer signed to DJ Premier's imprint, Works Of Mart. I'm not clear how these tracks came into being, as I'm not familiar enough with Obie's life to know whether he actually had a deal with an independent label prior to signing with the Marshall Mathers Experience, but Obie clearly thought that these songs would hold over the fans he still had while he was busy readying Bottoms Up, a project which still has not been assigned a release date. So Special Reserve won't sound cohesive as an album, but it was never intended to, and it isn't a mixtape, as Obie would have released it as such otherwise.

The collector in me tends to enjoy when artists open up their vaults and let loose some material that would remain unheard under normal circumstances, so I'm intrigued by what Obie Trice has to offer.

1. WELCOME

Although the song's very title would lead you to believe otherwise, this is not a rap album intro, since Obie actually spits over some catchy MoSS production work. It also isn't intended to be an introductory song, either: there is nothing welcoming about Obie's need to impress listeners and his threatening bodily harm against any of his adversaries. Even though “Welcome” was recorded well before Cheers, it somehow sounds like a natural extension of that project, which can only mean one thing: Obie Trice has somehow perfected the art of time travel. We should send some of our finest scientists to Detroit post haste.

2. GOT HUNGRY

Well, I'll give Obie credit for an accurate song title: the man sounds hungry as fuck over this hard-hitting instrumental. While most of this sounds pretty fucking terrific, Obie does manage a couple of missteps throughout his two verses: his “chorus” (by that I mean he repeats the last set of bars in the first verse twice) is terrible, and, in an effort to make his very last line rhyme, he uses the phrase “Fuck N-O!” instead of just going with a sentence that real people actually use, “Fuck no!”, unless they happen to be talking shit about the city of New Orleans for some reason. Obie was much younger back when “Got Hungry” was recorded, and he probably wouldn't pull the same stunt today, so I'm willing to let it slide.

3. YOU HAVE BEEN SLAIN

That title is hilariously corny, but it masks a really fucking good one-verse wonder from Obie Trice, as he narrates what happens when someone is shot and bleeds to death while waiting for the paramedics to arrive. He makes the interesting choice to begin the song with the actual shooting, but he doesn't add any sort of context: was it gang-related? Wrong place at the wrong time? The listener is caught unaware of the facts: the guy just gets shot, and you can only watch him die (or listen to him die, I suppose). Not only is this some pretty powerful shit, Obie proves himself to be an ace storyteller, tossing in enough one-off details to make you feel even worse when the protagonist passes away. (SPOILER ALERT!) MoSS lends our host a beat that mixes some ominous organ keys with steel drums, of all things, and that shit works beautifully.

4. ON & ON

MoSS hits the listener (and also Obie, I'm assuming) with a pulse-pounding instrumental that is a spiritual cousin to the best song Trice will ever record, Second Round's On Me's “Cry Now”. While “Cry Now” is still the much better effort, Obie actually sounds like he gives a shit on “On & On”, and yes, I realize I just wrote the word “on” nearly three times in a row within a single sentence.. Obviously, his relatively short tenure on Shady Records (where he at least released more material than Stat Quo and Ca$his) left him complacent, while back in the late 1990s the dude was fucking starving. The chorus annoyed the shit out of me, as MoSS seems to take listeners on a guided tour of every single rap song that has ever used the phrase “On & On”, but I still liked the song regardless.

5. I AM

There's a reference to Eminem on this track which comes across as a bizarre anachronism, even though I guess it's entirely possible that Obie Trice was on friendly terms with Marshall at the time “I Am” was recorded: they both hail from the same city, after all. Since I'm focusing so much on such a minute portion of a three-minute song, it's clear to me that I can only remember that one lone part. MoSS makes his first mistake with an instrumental that clashes ideologically with Obie Trice's need for approval, and neither side pulls out a victory. Still, it took Obie five tracks into Special Reserve to finally fuck up: you can't say that about any of his other albums.

6. 4 STORIES

Obie somehow fits four separate verses into a two-minute song without sacrificing anything lyrically. He isn't the best writer of our generation, but when he's giving a damn, his bars measure up to some of the better rappers out there, and that is the case for at least two of the verses on “4 Stories”, especially the final one, which sounds like an alternate take for “You Have Been Slain”. MoSS provides a beat that manages to be both entertaining and annoying as shit all at once: having to rely on soul samples as a crutch might be the man's downfall. But at least our host is up to the challenge.

7. ROUGHNECKS (FEAT. DEUCE WONDER)

I don't buy that everything on Special Reserve was recorded before Obie's interlude on Shady Records: if “Roughnecks” was sitting in the vaults while he was recording Cheers and wasn't up for album consideration, then the man must have been smoking some powerful shit with Em's money, as “Roughnecks” fucking bangs. MoSS starts with some hard drums and sprinkles in some organ keys, and Obie Trice rips the shit to pieces. Why, it's almost as though “Roughnecks” was the song that “Cry Now” wished it could be (although “Cry Now” has a much better beat). Even the chorus provided by Deuce Wonder (the lone guest star on Special Reserve) isn't that bad: I could legitimately see this song easily sliding onto radio playlists today, if only anybody gave a fuck about Obie Trice.

8. COOL CATS

MoSS's beat isn't that bad, but Obie trips over his own shoelaces, bangs his head against the concrete sidewalk, and now is unable to utter any phrase other than “I'm a cool n---a first, a grimy n---a later”. At least, that's how it feels when you actually have to listen to this shit. Maybe some of these tracks should have remained in the vault: when Obie demands that MoSS “turn this [music] the fuck off” at the very end, you're left feeling that he just read your mind.

9. WHAT YOU WANT

This song was fairly meh as well. What the fuck just happened?

10. JACK MY DICK

Obie Trice devotes an entire song to the art of masturbation, sounding like a guy who has flat-out given up on even trying to hook up with chicks in favor of jacking off, just because it takes him less effort. Amusing at first, but the track gains several degrees of sadness before it finally fades out, and now I just want to set up an online dating profile for the guy, just so he might get lucky again someday. Oh, the song? It's pretty bad. Why do you ask?

The following is considered to be a bonus track on Special Reserve.

11. DOPE, JOBS, HOMELESS

At least this song ends Special Reserve on a not-so-boring note, even though the title makes this sound like it was three separate freestyles strung together. It isn't all that great, either. MoSS provides an instrumental that sounds like it took him all of thirty seconds to put together, but it still works better than the previous two tracks: for his part, Obie even sounds okay. However, it's pretty clear why this was locked away for so long. And with that, we're good.

THE LAST WORD: Obie Trice's Special Reserve starts off surprisingly strong, but as I had feared, it tapers off significantly at the end. Still, the front half of Special Reserve ranks among Obie's best work, proving that the man did actually have the talent to warrant the Shady Records deal, even if he pissed it away shortly after signing the contract. Producer MoSS also gives the listener some inspired beats, acting as the DJ Premier to Obie's...um, more talented Lil' Dap, I suppose. A handful of these tracks are pretty fucking great, which was entirely unexpected: the younger incarnation of Obie Trice sounds just as assured behind the mic as the latter-day version, aside from some obvious verbal slips and poor lyrical decisions that only get repaired with time and experience. While I have no such high hopes for his eventual Bottoms Up, Obie Trice has given listeners a glimpse at his past on Special Reserve, and it's actually interesting enough to care about, or at least to bang in your car. Huh.

-Max

RELATED POSTS:

Obie Trice – Cheers

Obie Trice – Second Round's On Me

Obie Trice - Second Round's On Me (August 15, 2006)

In 2003, Obie "Obie Trice" Trice cemented his position as "the other solo artist Eminem signed to Shady Records" (the first being Curtis Jackson) with his debut album Cheers, a surprisingly enjoyable (at times) hip hop album that boasted some of the most creative production that Marshall Mathers has ever come up with.  Obie was also able to capitalize off of his newly-acquired status by collaborating with bigger names such as Dr. Dre (who even performed on one track, "Shit Hits The Fan"), Timbaland, Curtis, Lloyd Banks, Nate Dogg, Busta Rhymes, and, on a remix to "The Set Up", Reggie Noble.  (That remix, which was released as a single, marks probably the only time that Redman has officially rhymed over a Dr. Dre prescription.)  While it didn't move tons of copies, unlike the other guy from Shady Records (*cough* Get Rich Or Die Tryin' *cough*), Obie did well enough to keep his cult following salivating for more.


So around 2005, when the artist formerly known as Obie-1 (which is a far worse rap name than Obie Trice) began work on his follow-up, Second Round's On Me, hip hop heads (at least those who were paying any attention) watched as their own hearts started palpitating wildly with excitement.  It definitely didn't help that, around this time, his label boss Eminem (who, as we now understand, was entering the beginning stages of drug dependency, which affected his overall work ethic and contributed to some horribly shitty verses from the former Slim Shady) bragged to any rap media outlet who would listen that his production work on Second Round's On Me would surpass anything that he had ever done before.  (I remember reading about a song called "Emulate", named as such because I suppose Obie was supposed to be channeling his mentor's flow or something, but that track never emerged in a full-length version.)


Which is why it was so shocking that Obie Trice sustained two gunshot wounds at the very end of 2005.


Which is also why it was so shocking that Eminem's friend and D-12 running mate (and labelmate to Obie) Proof was killed just a few months later.


The recording of Second Round's On Me took on a very somber tone, as Obie explored the concept of not only loss, but his own mortality.  My understanding is that the man still carries bullet fragments in his head, as doctors have determined that it could be fatal if they try to extract them.  So Obie Trice has to walk around with the remnants of what being a moderate success can do to a person, a fact that is not lost on him during the entirety of Second Round's On Me.


I'm not sure if this was a result of Shady Records not allowing much of a budget for Obie to record his sophomore effort, or if the bigger names from before were now afraid to get anywhere near a guy who apparently attracted bullets like moths to a flame, but Second Round On Me's guest roster is far less distinguished than Cheers was.  As with the first effort, Marshall hangs out behind the boards and has a hand in the project's overall tone, but unlike Cheers, Eminem only appears on one song; consequently, when taken within the context of the year 2006, the biggest star to appear on here is fucking Akon, the man who lucked out a couple of years later when he hit the lottery by signing Lady Gaga to his own label.  Dr. Dre and Timbaland, apparently, had more pressing engagements with their barbells and their steroids, as neither man has anything to do with a guy who they claimed to like only a few years prior.


Can Obie Trice overcome these hurdles to bring listeners a decent second album?


No.  No he can't.


1. INTRO
Groan...


2. WAKE UP
The first song on Second Round's On Me pales in comparison to the first song on Cheers, “Average Man”, but I still kind of liked it. (Or at least I did, until the corny-ass ending revealed the track's true colors.) Obie spits for nearly the entire duration of the track, and since he sounds exactly the same as he has since I first started paying attention to him, this helps acclimate the listener with the man's world view.


3. VIOLENT
Similar in tone to the album opener from Cheers, but the inclusion of a sing-songy chorus deflates this aggressive balloon arrangement. The beat walks the fine line between decent and frustrating, and Obie ends up caught in the middle.


4. WANNA KNOW
Prior to sitting down and listening to Second Round's On Me again, the last time I had heard this song was during an episode of Entourage. Emile's beat is pretty interesting, as he throws together a trash can punch filled with far too many ingredients, but the end result still tastes pretty good, and it'll get you drunk. Obie's second verse veers toward ridiculous imagery, but everything before that is entertaining enough.


5. LAY DOWN
A relatively threatening Eminem instrumental, punctuated with odd vocal samples, follows Obie as he tries to violently get his point across, adopting an unnatural sped-up flow at times, because absolutely nothing screams malevolence than imitating Twista. Pass.


6. SNITCH (FEAT AKON)
Akno was included in these proceedings solely to ensure a radio-friendly single (as he was hot at the time, unlike today, since his shine was stolen from him by T-Pain and Akon is left collaborating on tracks such as David Guetta's “Sexy Bitch”), but the funny thing is that MTV banned the song (they have a documented problem with the “stop snitching” platform that a lot of rappers run for office upon), so “Snitch” was never really played on the fucking radio anyway. For what it's worth, Obie sounds okay, and Akon's singing doesn't overstay its welcome, but this isn't that great of a song; what annoyed me the most was that Marshall's ad-lib at the very beginning subliminally promises a cameo that never materializes.


7. CRY NOW
This comment will sound contradictory, so stay with me here: This is Obie Trice's best song, probably the best the man will ever record. The Witt & Pep beat is fucking amazing, and it complements Mr. Trice beautifully. However, I never noticed until today that Obie sounds uncomfortable and awkward over this instrumental. I'm being serious: go ahead and spin it yourself, and pay close attention to the host's delivery: he actually makes the song sound worse, like U-God does with most Rza-produced tracks. My memory has, apparently, replaced this original track with its remix, on which Obie sounds much more confident alongside his guest collaborators over this exact same beat. And yet, I still feel this is the man's peak. I warned you that the comment would sound contradictory, so I don't want to hear any complaints later.


8. BALLAD OF OBIE TRICE
I didn't care for this song.


9. JAMAICAN GIRL (FEAT BRICK & LACE)
A better attempt at a radio single than the goofy “Got Some Teeth” (which was probably written by Eminem anyway – Obie sounds completely different on that corny-ass track than he does on everything else he ever recorded, so much so that I wouldn't be surprised to find that a blog has unearthed a reference track for it), but this still sounds entirely out of place on an album that's all about violence, misogyny, pervasive drug content, and typical rapper bullshit.


10. KILL ME A MUTHA
Obie's transition from introductory ad-libs to his first verse is incredibly jarring: seriously, nobody felt that could have been tweaked in editing? The beat, from Marshall and his frequent producing partner Luis Resto, sounds alright, but Obie's retaliatory tale rings hollow, especially when he deliberately mispronounces the word “animal” just to make his bars rhyme. Not unheard of in hip hop, but it's still kind of lazy.


11. OUT OF STATE
Obie doesn't sound like a natural fit over a bouncy beat such as this, but he adapts his flow to the pace, which at least shows that he's trying his best. The song is weak overall, but the man clearly put some effort into it, which is always nice.


12. ALL OF MY LIFE (FEAT NATE DOGG)
This song contains what sounds like should have been a Dr. Dre beat, but instead, production duties are credited to Trell and Eminem. Nate Dogg's hook uncharacteristically sucks balls, and Obie's awkward imagery during this sex rap will make you want to hit the 'skip' button fairly quickly.


13. GHETTO (FEAT TREY SONGZ)
Trey Songz makes the first of two cameo appearances on here. Trice's vocals sound like they were mechanically slowed down to match the speed of J.R. Rotem's instrumental, and the end result features a rapper who comes off as if this were the first rap song the motherfucker ever wrote. This was weird.


14. THERE THEY GO (FEAT BIG HERK, EMINEM, & TRICK TRICK)
Obie includes a posse cut featuring some other Detroit rappers on Second Round's On Me, all in an effort to promote solidarity in Motown. Considering the large role Marshall played on Cheers, it's strange that his only vocal contribution to Obie's sophomore release is one verse on a song alongside two other guests that most heads outside of Detroit have never fucking heard of. (And yes, before someone comments, I'm aware that the overdose and drug dependency that birthed Relapse was affecting Eminem's work ethic at this point: I'm just pointing out a fact.) Not sure why Trick Trick only provides the outro, but whatever: this shit was weak as hell, and there are many better Detroit rappers Obie could have reached out to.


15. MAMA (FEAT TREY SONGZ)
Welcome back, Trey. Once again, Obie sounds like he isn't rhyming at full speed, and Trey's hook is filled to the brim with hip hop clichés, so there isn't much to recommend about this shit.


16. 24'S
Fairly embarrassing for everybody involved.


17. EVERYWHERE I GO (FEAT 50 CENT)
Thankfully, Curtis Jackson only provides hook duties, but his presence still wasn't necessary: thanks to Em's beat, there was no fucking way this could have ever been a hit record. Even Obie sounds less than convinced of his own boasts on here.


18. OBIE STORY
Probably the most mature song Obie Trice has written up until this point. The title is goofy, and J.R. Rotem's production is lacking the dramatic flair and gravitas that Obie's autobiography should contain, but this was still an effective way to end the man's second album. More tracks of this nature would have been appreciated, but it's too late now.


FINAL THOUGHTS: Second Round's On Me suffers from the sophomore jinx. Obie Trice's second full-length effort features the rapper choosing to rest on his laurels instead of actively trying to hone his skills, and Shady Records fails him as well, providing not enough of an album budget and/or confidence to afford the big names that handled production and guest spot duties on Cheers. A lot of this album ends up boring listeners to death, and when Obie manages to conjure up a good song, it's too little, too late. “Cry Now” will become the song Obie Trice will be best known for, mark my words. However, there just isn't anything on here that differentiates Obie from your average shitty rapper, no matter what region he hails from, and that isn't a good thing.  It's little wonder why Obie would find himself dropped from Shady Records less than three years later.


BUY OR BURN? This one is a burn. I felt this was a major disappointment when it first dropped, causing me to lose faith in the man's talent. It isn't a complete wash, but nobody purchases CDs with the intent to skip every single track. Groan.


BEST TRACKS: “Cry Now”; “Obie Story”; “Wanna Know”


-Max


RELATED POSTS:
Obie Trice – Cheers

Obie Trice - Cheers (September 23, 2003)

By far, my favorite fact about Detroit rapper Obie Trice is that Obie Trice is his real name. It's not even a nickname of any sort: it's a family name (he's the third in line). To me, that's awesome. But I cannot allow that tidbit to overshadow the actual reason I'm writing about Obie Trice, and my two readers shouldn't, either, even if they don't know what the fuck is running through my head at the moment.

Obie was an underground rapper who I like to imagine liked to spit freestyles while standing in line for the lunch truck during breaks at the local unnamed factory a la 8 Mile, a flick that he briefly appeared in. He released some singles under the radar, and found some early success, and because all Detroit rappers seem to know each other, Marshall Mathers took a liking to the young man. He was quickly signed to Eminem's Shady Records vanity label, which was gifted to him by Interscope executives after Em's first two albums sold a combined gazillion and three copies; it was the only free thing that they could think to give him after they blew all of the profits on private islands, whores, and a few woolly mammoth vacuum cleaners, as popularized on the hit reality show The Flintstones.

Obie took advantage of this new situation, and recorded tracks that would appear in projects such as D12's Devil's Night, the soundtrack to the aforementioned 8 Mile (Eminem's film breakthrough), and, to a much lesser extent, Marshall's own The Eminem Show (Obie's brief cameo before "Without Me" was pulled from Obie's intended lead single, "Rap Name", which didn't hit quite as effectively after Obie was jailed prior to the single's release; the song was later banished to "You can only find it on the Interweb" status). His debut album, Cheers, followed the standard blueprint for hip hop success: songs for the ladies, songs for the thugs, songs for the clubs, lather, guest spots by artists that are more popular than you, rinse, beats by some of the most well-respected in the game, and repeat.

Cheers sold moderately well, but not as well as executive producer Eminem would have hoped. Cheers was marketed with the Willy Wonka-esque commitment of five golden tickets that would afford the lucky winners a trip to visit Eminem in the studio, ostensibly to watch him eat Chick Fil-A and overdose on Ambien. This didn't work as well as Interscope would have liked, but Cheers garnered some video airplay on MTV, which made Obie Trice more of a household name than, well, you know, the Detroit rapper Em should have signed to Shady Records.

You know who I'm talking about.

1. AVERAGE MAN
For a mainstream rap album, for there not to be an inane rap album intro is amazing. This first track is a pretty good way for Obie to introduce himself, and Eminem's production surprisingly rocks.

2. CHEERS
And then it's followed by this weak shit.

3. GOT SOME TEETH
Corny as fuck. Obie attempted to give his new Interscope bosses a radio-friendly single in the vein of what Eminem's first singles inevitably sound like. In fact, he even adopts/steals Eminem's flow to such strong effect that I'm wondering exactly how much of the song was written by Marshall.

4. LADY (FEAT EMINEM)
Obie gets murdered on his own shit by a scene-stealing Eminem, who delivers his best performance in a loooong fucking time, even sneaking in a sly Ja Rule diss (which is a running theme on Cheers, by the way).

5. DON'T COME DOWN
Pretty boring, and the drums that kick in later are unnecessary.

6. THE SET UP (FEAT NATE DOGG)
I'm pretty sure this was a single, but I don't feel like verifying that fact. This coldly calculated Dr. Dre beat creeps along as Obie spits his betrayal saga. There's an official remix of this song that features, of all people, Lloyd Banks, Jadakiss, and Redman. I have it on good authority that Obie utilized a lottery system, not unlike Ticketmaster, to determine who would get to contribute: this would explain the inclusion of future foes Lloyd Banks and Jadakiss.

7. BAD BITCH (FEAT TIMBALAND)
What happens when you combine a terrible Timbaland instrumental with some awful lyrics? Those of you that answered OneRepublic's "Apologize" are only half right: Timbo didn't really do much with that song except tweak the beat.

8. SHIT HITS THE FAN (FEAT DR. DRE & EMINEM)
This song is actually hilarious, because Dr. Dre hasn't really dissed anyone on wax since Eazy-E, and here he takes pot shots at Ja Rule and Suge Knight. It's strange that he decided to get involved in Curtis Jackson's beef, though: you would think Dre would have been too busy counting his money and not making Detox. Em's hook grates on the nerves.

9. FOLLOW MY LIFE
I don't wanna.

10. WE ALL DIE ONE DAY (FEAT LLOYD BANKS, 50 CENT, & EMINEM)
This song was originally an exclusive for a DJ Muggs mixtape, which may explain the multiple Cypress Hill references that pop up during Eminem's verse. It's a passable track, with decent turns from Obie and, surprisingly, Lloyd Banks, but, as per usual, Curtis fucks the whole shit up.

11. SPREAD YO SHIT (FEAT KON ARTIS)
Meh.

12. LOOK IN MY EYES (FEAT NATE DOGG)
Nate Dogg provides what I believe to be his weakest hook ever, over some low-key Dr. Dre production. Obie acquits himself honorably, which is to say, he doesn't completely suck on here.

13. HANDS ON YOU (FEAT EMINEM)
While the track itself is awful beyond belief, it at least proves that Eminem has more than one move when it comes to producing songs.

14. HOODRATS
A lame ass skit introduces a weak song with a decent beat, produced by Eminem and Emile. Oh well.

15. OH! (FEAT BUSTA RHYMES)
Don't get all excited: Busta only appears on the hook of this waste of a Dr. Dre prescription. However, this was released around the time that more Busta Rhymes did not equal a good song, so it is what it is.

16. NEVER FORGET YA
As the obligatory "dedication" song, not bad, but I can do without the multiple references to "down ass bitches". Oh, I get it, and I appreciate a good down ass bitch as much as the next guy, but I can't help to think that Obie's really rhyming about some Labrador puppies that he grew up alongside while living in Rock City.

17. OUTRO (FEAT D12)
This is really just a D12 song that just happens to feature Obie Trice. Sadly, this is more representative of the type of rhymes that Em is prone to spitting today: while technically proficient, the passion is gone. (I dare Marshall to prove me and my two readers wrong.) Obie fits right in as the missing seventh member of the Dirty Dozen, so he has that going for him, which isn't nice, since he's actually better than everyone in D12 (save for the white guy) when given half a chance.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Obie's not the best rapper in the world, but Cheers surrounds him with talent, so he comes off better than he actually should, even though Cheers doesn't work as an album. A handful of the tracks are very good, though, and he doesn't litter each track with his weed carriers, which helps matters considerably. In fact, for an Eminem-produced album that isn't D12's, it sounds surprisingly polished, which only makes one wonder what he could have done for that other Detroit rapper, who shall remain nameless.

BUY OR BURN? Obie shows sparks of actual talent, and his debut is pretty entertaining in spots. Am I recommending a purchase? Hell no, but some of the tracks are pretty good, so you should burn those and go along your merry way.

BEST TRACKS: "Average Man"; "Shit Hits The Fan"; "Lady"; "The Set Up"

-Max