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

Things were going so well for Obie Trice. Taken straight outta the gutter by Eminem and signed to his Shady Records record label to begin work on his debut album amongst the likes of the legendary Dr. Dre Trice had the opportunity of a lifetime to prove his lyrical skills and rawness to the world.

Besides from a few underground songs he did before he was signed - The Well Known As-hole, Mr. Trice and Dope Jobs Homeless (all which were dope as f*ck and originally convinced Eminem to sign him) as well as a few appearances on Shady Records albums (a short freestyle on Devils Night, a verse on The Eminem Show and two appearances on 8 Mile) there wasn t that much hype leading up to 2003 s Cheers. Originally, it was supposed to be released early on in the year but it was pushed back several months due to the massive success of 50 Cent s Get Rich or Die Tryin - an album which was seen by Eminem and Dre as having far more commercial potential than Trice ever would. Eventually, several months after 50 s hype had down and Trice had been entirely forgotten about, Cheers was released to the public.

It s easy to see the parts of the album that were recorded before 50 Cent and after 50 Cent. There s no doubt Trice was a hugely skilled and hungry emcee when he was first signed and proof of this can be found sporadically throughout the album on songs most probably recorded before 50 Cent dropped. He s got an ill flow and voice, he has the ability to speak on a wide array of interesting topics, he s very realistic and sincere and when he s backed up by some of the best producers in the industry I was certain his album would be an absolute banger.

Then again, it s very easy to identify the parts of the album that were recorded after 50 Cent dropped. It s in these songs where Trice simply seems to have that attitude Eminem s got now what s the point of putting any effort into my music if it s gonna sell anyway? And it s a damn shame because trice s skill is wasted on such songs and the entire album s value is degraded.

Whats also strange to see on an album by such a skillful emcee is the huge amount of guest appearances. It almost seems that Eminem had no faith in Trice and was convinced he needed a lot of guests to help him through the duration of the album. Even with production from Em himself, Dre, Kon Artis and other highly qualified producers, it seems Eminem was somewhat pampering over Obie Trice with this release and I just cant understand why. Even worse is the fact that Eminem makes appearances on 5 songs and often steals the show (nothing to be embarrassed about back in 2003) which just took all the focus off Trice and once again gives the impression that Trice cant carry an entire album by himself which is straight bullsh!t.

But besides from all these problems, I was still very interested in hearing what Cheers would sound like. Would 50 Cent s success really have that much of an impact on the album? Would Trice prove that he is able to stand on his own two feet? How does the album compare to Get Rich or Die Tryin ? Was it worth pushing it back so far? Here goes...

Tracklist:

1. Average Man (5 Stars)
2. Cheers (3 Stars)
3. Got Some Teeth (3 Stars)
4. Lady (4 Stars)
5. Don t Come Down (4 Stars)
6. The Setup (1 Star)
7. Bad B!tch (0 Stars)
8. Sh!t Hits the Fan (4 Stars)
9. Follow My Life (3 Stars)
10. We All Die One Day (4 Stars)
11. Spread yo Sh!t (1.5 Stars)
12. Look In My Eyes (5 Stars)
13. Hands on You (2 Stars)
14. Hoodrats (0 Stars)
15. Oh! (5 Stars)
16. Never Forget Ya (4 Stars)
17. Outro (5 Stars)

The album starts off with a huge bang on Average Man. Backed by Eminem s fearsome guitar riffs, synths and an eerie keyboard loop the beat is perfect for Trice to rip over and introduce himself to the world. Being an introductory track, its no surprise the song is mostly made of threat making/braggadocio type raps but Trice delivers with such flair and aggression that the fact that it might be a bit too formulaic can be entirely ignored. Trice is on top form here far from sounding like an average man, he sounds fully confident that he s ready to bring flames. His attitude can easily be summed up in a few lines:

It's not a act, this is fact, this is how I'm programmed,
This is me, what I'm about, this who I am motherf*cker!

Following that same Shady Records formula of having an extremely catchy and pop-like first single to attract unsuspecting fans in the vein of Without Me, The Real Slim Shady or Purple Hills, we have Got Some Teeth as the first major single off the album. Em s board work is a very interesting and somewhat overdone mix of whiny synths and bass to try create that same vibe, but it doesn t really seem to work and with Trice s uninspired and lazy hook, its no surprise the song failed to really go anywhere on the charts. Trice speaks about going to a club and being unable to find any normal women there and while his humorous rhymes - she's model material, but she got a venereal - are well written and delivered the song just doesn t blend together well.

If I were Trice, I would have most certainly gone the G Unit route and used the title track Cheers as my first single. With a much more banging, hard hitting feel to it provided by Em s heavy synths, bass, drums and vocals it a very mainstream/commercial sounding beat and even though Trice starts off with a few stunning bars paying homage to all his dead homies his rhymes quickly become the same old threat making/gangsta cliches that you d expect on a G Unit record. Still, I really do like the production as well as Trice s infectious hook and I believe this could have been a huge hit if it were released as a single probably just as successful as In Da Club.

Speaking of G Unit, this is the stage when we get to the terrible simple, cliched, mainstream crap I was speaking of earlier most probably inspired by 50 Cent. Dr. Dre does a surprisingly bad job with the beat of the horribly insipid, stupid, boring The Setup featuring an equally bad Nate Dogg on the hook. Trice struggles to stay on the erratic beat with his uninspired verses about a shady b!tch and the song is just a terrible addition. Kon Artis of D12 also does a surprisingly bad job on Spread Yo Sh!t - he provides a really annoying hook and some decent funky production, but Trice once again sounds uninspired spitting some tired threat making raps with the occasional hot line here and there. Even more surprising is how bad Eminem s hook on Hands on You is. While his heavily synthesized production has a very nice dark and ominous feel to it, this beat could have made a seriously ill song had Trice focused himself and rapped about something worthwhile, but with subject matter that once again deals with about his troubles with women it s just too boring and unoriginal to care about, never mind the fact that with each of these songs his rhymes get more simplistic and one dimensional.

It would be a safe assumption to say that one could draw a parallel with 50 Cent s Wanksta and Trice s Timbaland produced Bad B!tch. I think I ve said enough there. Absolutely horrid. Hoodrats is even worse and I d rather not speak about it at all you should be able to tell what it s about from the title.

Now that I ve covered the wackest material on the album, I d like to focus more on the positives Trice has to offer. With the huge amount of guest appearances there are bound to be a few good ones and both big crew joints - We All Die One Day and the Outro (which is a full song) are good examples.

The first of these We All Die One Day features Em, 50 and Lloyd Banks all of whom pretty much outshine Obie who just spits a small and relatively uninteresting verse over an awesome grimy bassline and drums. While 50 Cent s verse is predictably awful, Lloyd Banks does an excellent job on the hook and in his verse stuffed with clever punchlines and a solid flow. Of course as expected Eminem entirely steals the show with a huge verse as he rips into The Source and speaks generally about the power of Shady Records. This is by far the best verse on the album.

Eminem along with D12 join Obie on the Outro and all once again get completely outshined by Eminem s verse. Trice does a much better job on here, probably second to Eminem and the rest of D12 all deliver the good with typically D12-ish violent, but ill verses over Em s shady production it sounds like a song straight out of Devils Night - and a damn good one at that.

Dre finally does come right with a fantastic flute and drum loop, blended in with occasional piano keys on the Murder Inc/Ja Rule diss track Sh!t Hits the Fan. Dre even contributes a nice verse dissing the Inc. though Trice s verse is far better and Em s contagious and violent hook just gels the entire song together perfectly. While it might sound perfect, it s actually a pretty weak diss track so I prefer to call it more of a threat making song - this is not a hypocritical issue, I will critical condition your tissue and with such an amazing beat from Dre, it lands up sounding great.

The last of em s appearances takes form in the sequel to Drips from The Eminem show - Lady. The beat is another one of those grimy, shady combinations of synths, keys and heavy bass and Em and Obie trade sick hilariously creative and clever misogynistic verses (there s even a few punches thrown in at Ja Rule). As expected, Em steals the show, but Trice does hold his own and manages to keep up for most of the song.

You'll be walkin' out the house and I'll run up and tackle you,
Chain your as# up to the bed and shackle you,
You don't think you're leavin' this house in that, do you?
Not till I brand my name in your as# and tattoo you,
And have you walkin' out this b!tch in turtleneck sweaters,
Scarves and full leathers in 90 degree weather,
Front on me? Never, cuz we gonna be together forever
Right b!tch? {*gun cock*}Right b!tch? {*gun cock, shot*}

With Busta Rhymes doing a great job on the hook of Oh! - Obie finally shows us what he s truly capable of and provides the exact type of music most people were expecting to hear on this album. Dre s chilling keyboard notes and strings make an eerie atmosphere and trice provides the fuel to light it up with some of the best rhymes he s ever spit about life on the streets and the fears associated with it, his hopes and aspirations for the future, memories of pumping crack on street corners and the constant paranoia he had to deal with throughout his difficult life all wrapped in multisyllabic intelligent lyricism.

A derelict who inherited hustle,
My heritage married the street struggle,
Like a couple of a great unc's ago

Dre also contributes to the extremely heartfelt and emotional violin strings of Look In My Eyes, this time with Nate Dogg performing a brilliant, soulful hook and Trice matching this with a brilliant introspective display of his own discussing similar topics that he did in the previous track, just more from the perspective of someone on the outside looking in how people deal with the stress of street life through violence and drugs.

Don t Come Down is a song dedicated to Obie s mother where he thanks her for putting up with him through all the sh!t he had to put her through as a homeless drug dealer so he could survive. Trice sounds very sincere and thanks his mother for giving birth to him and cites her mothering skills as the reason that he s got to where he is today. It s a very touching song and Em s powerful guitar strings, keys and bass make for a deep and moving atmosphere to add to the song. The only complaint I have is the horrible high pitched chipmunk sample used for the hook which just sounds completely out of place.

Obie takes the time to thank everybody he knows that s had a part to play in his life on Never Forget Ya. Over some slow melancholic strings Trice doesn t really seem to focus on rhymes its more of a thank you note than a song, though it sounds pretty good and is another nice touch to the album as a whole.

So did I get what I expected from Obie Trice? Not really. The album is just too much of a mixed bag to really enjoy there are some fantastic, top quality songs but far too much garbage in between.

To answer the questions that I posed above, yes, it seems 50 s album did have a large effect on this one there were plenty moments when it was evident that Trice was trying as hard as he could to sound exactly like 50 senseless violence and gangsterisms all delivered in weak and simple rhymes over commercial beats and these were by far the worst moments on the album. On the other hand, Trice does prove to critics that he is capable of standing on his own two feet and could have easily done without all unnecessary guest appearances. Like I said earlier he s definitely got skill, but I don t think Eminem gave him enough of an opportunity to shine.

And finally in terms of comparing it to Get Rich or Die Tryin , yes it is a better album but only slightly and in the end the two are really just very similar records.

Trice proved with his sophomore effort Second Rounds on Me that he is definitely capable of making some ill music by himself, though I still do believe he s got the potential to create a classic album I just hope the influences of people like 50 Cent don t get to him and I m sure he ll eventually show the world the true extent of his talents.

3.5 Stars

I m out.