Cheers [PA] - Trice, Obie (CD 2003)

Ever since his freestyle on D12's Devils Night, many fans have been patiently waiting for Obie Trice's album. He had been swirling around in the Detroit underground for sometime before Eminem found him. However with the explosion of JFK coins being heard everywhere on radios and music videos alike, 50 Cent and his spinning G Unit booted O-Trizzy to the bench. Obie Trice has been found on many a mixtape however increasing the buzz about his album and with fractionally above par appearances on the 8 Mile soundtrack, Shady Records fans abroad were amped for this. Despite that toilet food song Drips, Obie's buzz is bigger than ever Not to mention the fact that Eminem is pushing this album harder than Ja Rule wants to be. One thing you can say about Shady he does a great job giving the rapper on his label great promotion when in reality if he wanted he could easily sh!t them and still be the commercial hip-hop icon(sorry guys) that he is today. Hell all Eminem had to do was throw the "Obie Trice, Real name, no gimmicks" line onto the begining of Without Me and Obie's fame shot through the roof. Oh yeah when I bought this album, I opened it up and what do we have here? A GOLDEN INSERT. I get to meet Eminem, and hear some new exclusive sh!ts from his next album, directly from the studio...I can't wait.

1. Average Man - $$$$ - Jay-Z Trice, Impersonation's My gimmick. Oops did I say that out loud? Well not really but that "n!gguh" and "Im Focus" thing is what Hov does. However this track is pretty nice. Trice spits on this track about the haters up in the club. A bunch of braggadocio lyrics spit from Trice. The beat is pretty nice, but it is synthesized to the death of it, which is Eminem's signature. Average Man is an above average track.

2. Cheers - 0 - We get a Vaudeville type of piano into with Obie talking pure nonsense over it. The beat is stupid. Obie Trice talks about when he was a young thug doing his dirt in the streets. The chorus however is pure commercial sh!t. This song is miserable. Obie flow is sh!t and with this beat backing him up...I'll put it this way If Obie was a cop and The beat was his partner backing him up, The beat would kill Obie than kill itself leaving a bomb in the car to kill any detectives on the scene. The detectives being you the listener. Never play this track.

3. Got Some Teeth - $$$ - Now if you haven't heard his song you shouldn't be reading this review. The video for the song is exactly what this song is. Basically Obie Trice going on three dates that have gon' miserably wrong as women he encounters don't have teeth, have too many babies, are Steady Hoggin(Thanks J-Zone) and have diseased vaginas. This song is pretty stupid, but so are all Shady records lead singles save 50 Cent(In The Club WAS stupid, but not in this way). The beat is tight and knocks crazy in clubs.

4. Lady(feat. Eminem) - $$1/2 - The beat is kind of reminiscent of 50's In the Club, but this song uses the almighty Emthesizers to cover it up. This is a continuation to Drips as Obie is tossing insults towards females. Eminem mentions Kim as he does always and he takes jabs at Mariah Carey as well as Ja Rule. Obie ruins it with some elementary rhymes. Eminem spits an average verse here. Disappointing

5. Don't Come Down - $$$$$ - The violins on this beat are tight and Obie Trice spits some killer lyrics here. The chipmunk on this song is mad annoying however. He should have just chalked it up and gave the chipmunk sample to The Diplomats, they wouldv'e equally matched the chipmunk in terrible vocals, as they usually do. Obie Trice spits some heartfelt intospective lyrics here about when he was younger and his dysfunctional family. This is Obie Trice at his finest. However Obie just doesn't spit like this enough. He opts to use the gimmick(no gimmick?) raps that Eminem & D12 use.

6. The Set Up(feat. Nate Dogg) - $$$ - Annoying beat. Obie spits a story of the streets and the drama between a woman and a shady female tryna set brothers up. Nate Dogg does his usual nice job on the chorus. Obie Trice's story is pretty tight but this beat is just annoying

7. Bad B!tch - $(Bad Song) - This can't possibly be a song from the guy who produced Deliverance. No I just wont believe it. The production on this song is butt a$$ sloppy. Obie Trice's lyrics are terrible and so is the subject. He spits punchlines about having sex. Timbo sings a terrible ballad for the chorus. Terrible.

8. Sh!t Hit's The Fan(feat. Dr. Dre) - $$$1/2 - Known on the mixtape circuit as Bodyguard this track is another stomp on the knocked out career that is Ja Rule. The verse Dr. Dre spits is just killer. Before I heard this song I wasn't expecting this. Man Dr. Dre lets off on this clown. Funny How when Dr. Dre beef with someone either they or thier affilite gets raided...Jermaine Dupri...Irv Gotti. Im just playin, But I'm sayin(thanks Big). Obie also spits some good rhymes, but I have to feel sorry for Ja. Shady/Aftermath is just beating him so bad like a dead horse, that Ja Rule's upcoming album title just shows he is done. Blood In My Eye

9. Follow My life - $$$$ - This beat has a rock vibe to it, utilizing guitar riffs and some thumping bass. Obie spits about his growning up and him on his grind. Obie lyrics are full of passion and you really feel what he is spitting on this track. His subject matter is dark and real and Obie does a great job here.

10. We All Die One Day(feat. 50 Cent, G-Unit & Eminem) - $$$$ - This track is also known on the mixtape circuit as Assassins. Back when I was into 50 Cent, around this time last year hearing his many G Unit mixtape, I thought of how hot a collabo with G-Unit, Obie & Shady. Well here it is and in fact this is the first song from 50 Cent I have heard that I like, since his Fat B!tch G-Unit song, which was out around last November. After that I released 50 was mad wack and I wasn't enjoying listening to him, rather I was enjoying Lloyd Banks and on occasion Tony Yayo. Back to the song. It has a nice beat and Lloyd Banks handles the chorus. Obie Trice opens up with a pretty mediocre verse about haters in the clubs. Chris Lloyd spits some tight gangsta rhymes filled with metafores and punchlines. Its aight but I've heard a sh!t load better from Banks. Eminem comes up next and he spits a killer verse. He takes jabs at Ja Rule and Mariah Carey, spittin rhymes about Extasy and Insanity respectively. He also tosses verses at the Source. 50 some some of the worst lyrics ever places on vinyl. "You can do all them pushups to pump up ya chest/I got a 12 guage marsburg that'll pump up ya chest" Terrible. Then it gets EVEN WORST when he spits "I watch gangsta flicks and root for the bad guy/Turn it off before the end because the bad guy die/If you tryna buy guns Im the n!gga to look to/So what they got bodies on em they still look new" Miserable. I don't mean to disrespect 50 as a human being but I have to compare him with Benzino. Sh!t every time I hear either of them rap it makes be laugh at how bad they are. I can't believe I was once a fan of this guy. Man

11. Spread Yo Sh!t(feat. Kon Artis of D12) - $$$ - It seems Kon Artist is getting a bunch of shine lately being on Ras Kass's album and now this. It seems Proof might be tossed even further back on the Shady/Aftermath bench. F!ck it put him on injured reserve. This song has a DJ intro with Blow My Buzz from Devils Night playing in the background. Kon Artist takes care of the chorus singing and it really isn't that bad. He even sounds like a broke down Mr. Kane. Obie Trice spits some pretty funny rhymes here and even throws in another Jay-Z quote and he even does the little raise his voice on the last syllable of a word that Jay-Z does(Stolen from Pac). This beat is pretty tight as well.

12. Look In My Eyes(feat. Nate Dogg) - $$1/2 - Obie starts off doing a little of what he did on Adrenaline Rush from 8 Mile. Sayin Muthaf!cka after every rhymes. This song starts off with mad potential that falls apart and actually becomes annoying. The beat is aight but overproduced, the violins are nice though. Obie spits some gangster raps that aren't that good. Nate Dogg once again drops by to hit the chorus and as usual he does a nice job.

13. Hands on you(feat. Eminem) - $$1/2 - The beat on this track is crazy. Fully Emthesized and thumpin bass moves this song. Eminem's chorus is wack however sounding like a male chorus which would be used for Ja Rule's Down 4 U or Down A$$ B!tch your choice. Obie Trice spitting his lyrics to a chick and the problems they have. As of now you can see that Obie doesn't do these type of songs well.

14. Hoodrats - $ - This is purely sh!tty version of Got Some Teeth without the Blind Date and the no teeth gimmick. Crap. I was actually thinking the beat was hot when I heard this sick Batman, sample but I then realized it was my Batman Desktop Theme after killing a pop-up or something

15. Oh(feat. Busta Rhymes) - $$$$1/2 - The last time Busta teamed up with Shady Records he dropped the d!ckhead gimmick and dropped some fiery, sick, crazy, ugly, vicious, killer lyrics on Ja Rule's head via the Hail Mary freestyle which featured 50 Cent copying 2Pac's every word and changing "Nas" to "Ja" and Biggie to Gotti(I think thats it). This beat starts out with potential to be just crazy. Little syhnthesized chimes and bumpin bass Obie opens up spitting tight lyics about growing up in Detroit. Busta Rhymes doesn't rap this time but does a great job on the chorus.

16. Never Forget Ya - $$$$ - This song is tight and lyrically Obie kills it spitting about the past and people who have passed. His retrospective lyrics are really heartfelt for the most part. The beat is depressing and fits the song to a T. He tosses jabs at commercial rap and downs Bow Wow(Finally). The chorus is kind of annoying with Obie saying the names of people we will never forget, but it is nice because it has emotion.

17. Outro(feat. Eminem & D12) - $$$$ - The beat opens up like the song Go To Sleep with Em, DMX & Obie, with Eminem rapping as the beat is played real low and slightly increasing then after a shot it jumps in. Eminem opens up spittin about how he loves the haters and he spits venous lyrics towards them. After him D12 and Obie do a nice job. Bizarre is terrible so you really don't care what he says, but he spits disses to Ja Rule and R.Kelly and ends it off saying "This is Bizarre, See you Devil's Night 2"

I was kind of disappointed with this album. It has some good songs but it also has some really terrible songs. All in all it is a mixed bag. I find some mixtape songs on here but in my opinion the best mixtape song Obie has isn't on here in Go To Sleep I was expecting this album to be crazy hot. I was expecting Obie to hit us with some killer lyrics. However after hearing this I was frustrated. Even D12 was able to put out a good album. This is another reason that I thought this was gonna be a smash is because D12's was hot and I figured anything with Eminem pumping it up like a fresh pair of Reebok Pumps back in 1993, will have to be a classic. Then again after listening to it I realize that Em is taking a more commercial turn. The Eminem Show wasn't up to Slip Shady LP and Marshall Mathers LP standards by 8 miles. Then we gets 50 Cent who is the posterboy for commercial rap and now Obie Trice. Its a turn for the worst y'all hopefully D12's record doesn't follow this. Then I hear Em's next album will be his last and I wonder if maybe Eminem himself is fed up with the commercial bullsh!t.

Top 3 Songs
1.Don't Come Down
2.Oh(feat. Busta Rhymes)
3.Never Forget Ya

Like This Album? Try These
1.King Gordy - The Entity
2.J-Zone - Sick of Bein' Rich
3.Eminem - Marshall Mathers LP (I did this review a lifetime ago)