NFL
By: Joe Cardoso
The year was 2003 and if you were a fan of hip hop one man had the game in a choke hold Marshall Mathers aka Eminem. He was everywhere whether you liked it or not. He was gearing up to have his label Shady Records be “NEXT” and he wanted to highlight his crew and hometown of Detriot in the process. In doing so he scooped up Obie Trice who we first heard about on the single “Without Me” where the tagline “Obie Trice real name no gimmicks” hits at the start. Who was he? How did he know Slim? And most important could he bring the same energy the rest of the guys did in terms of lyrics and hits? He popped up on other people’s singles and more than held his own but we all wanted to know how his debut album would be and also if would he ride with the gang in the middle of all its beefs.
A Debut To Remember:
With people like 50 Cent, Em, and the one and only Dr. Dre backing him it seemed almost impossible for Obie to not come out the gates on fire. In 2003 he dropped “Cheers” and in the age before streaming sold over 200,000 copies WEEK 1. During this time things went one of two ways either the backing of a major artist set you up to do big numbers and then flop, or you proved you earned the shine and blew up. For Obie he proved the hype was real and then some, with his mix of humor and street talk with some fresh punchlines. Songs like “We All Die One Day”, “The Setup”, and my personal favorite “Sh*t Hits The Fan”. The last track had the whole team shutting down Murder INC and Ja Rule and includes one of the best verses I have ever heard from Dr. Dre. Eminem was all over the album producing 8 tracks and Dr. Dre lent a hand as well to make sure things sounded like fire coming through your speakers. And in what has now become a lost art in hip-hop the features fit and each artist spit with feeling. This was an era where once someone got out of the booth you had to try and outdo them. Lloyd Banks was not playing games when he came on We All Die One Day, and 50 Cent was in his hook bag on this one. You won’t find too many albums like this with top-level MCs meeting top-notch production for a perfect match. This just made the Shady/Aftermath era have an even bigger grip on music during this time.
The Aftermath:
Off the success of Cheers, he went on to drop Second Rounds on Me in 2006 which was as high as 8 on the Billboard charts which use to mean something, look it up, kids. I felt like this was more of Obie as he showed improved rhymes and better beats to match his flow. Standout tracks such as “Snitch”, and “Cry Now” shared tales of Detriot street life and some of the fun party vibes he gave us on Cheers. Without the big names on the production, some critics hated on it, and also by this time 50 Cent still was the star of the label. With so much of what people listened to coming from magazine reviews things like Rolling Stone giving him 2 stars that hurt. But the album was not the suspect project some people tried to make it out to be. Outlets with writers who really know the music praised it and said the follow-up held it’s on but lacked that radio-friendly single.
His Place In Hip Hop:
One has to wonder if he dropped before 50 would he have been the major breakout star? Or was the mild manner wordsmith from Detriot not built for what would have come with the title? After leaving Shady he still dropped two more albums but none of them ever saw the commercial success as his debut. He still does tours around the globe and drops quality music. If you ask around to real hip-hop heads they know that Cheers is one of the best debut hip-hop albums around and that Obie Trice is a solid part of hip-hop history. It was always Real Name, No Gimmicks!
