Obie Trice
Second Round's on Me
(Shady/Universal)
You think you're having a rough year? Try Obie Trice's on for size.
On New Year's Eve, the Detroit rapper was the target of a drive-by shooting -- and now has a bullet lodged in his brain. Then, in April, his best friend and fellow rapper Proof was shot and killed in a nightclub gunfight.
As you might expect, both traumatic events had an impact on his dark sophomore album Second Round's on Me.
Although most of the CD was done before the shootings, Trice returned to the studio with producer Eminem in spring to cut three new tunes that are the disc's most powerful moments.
Fuelled by a soulful Bobby Bland sample, Cry Now looks back on his shooting: "X-rays show I was this close to heaven / So for future reference, I stay this close to a weapon."
Wake Up turns a morgue encounter with Proof's body into a call for peace: "I try to reach out but you won't wake up / My brothers and sisters, we got to wake up." Violent, like the bulk of the disc, puts Obie behind the trigger with a more typical tale of gangster life -- proving his brushes with death aren't going to spot him from keeping it real.
In fact, with Second Round's on Me, Trice might be a little too real for some listeners.
Track Listing:
1. Intro
2. Wake Up
3. Violent
4. Wanna Know
5. Lay Down
6. Snitch
7. Cry Now
8. Ballad of Obie Trice
9. Jamaican Girl
10. Kill Me a Mutha
11. Out of State
12. All of My Life - Nate Dogg, , Obie Trice
13. Ghetto - Trey Songz, , Obie Trice
14. There They Go - Eminem, , Obie Trice,
15. Mama - Trey Songz, , Obie Trice
16. 24's
17. Everywhere I Go - 50 Cent, , Obie Trice
18. Obie Story