Even in the rap game, not many artists are as thuggish as Trick Daddy Dollars. The Miami rapper with a long rap sheet came perilously close to a felony third strike in 2003, but Trick avoided the most serious charges and continued to work on his recently released album, "Thug Matrimony: Married to the Streets."
Luckily for Trick Daddy, in the rap music industry, trouble with the law serves to protect the credibility of rappers, whose success is built on a foundation of street credentials.
Since his career started, Trick Daddy has been one of the most prominent faces of Southern rap, leading the way as the south has risen to the national scene. All the way, he's remained a master of the fluffier stuff that keeps young people dancing and dollars in his pockets.
But he hasn't been afraid to experiment either. "Thug Matrimony" incorporates sounds ranging from crunk to R&B to soul. Moreover, a social conscience has found a place in Trick's music and listeners have responded.
After his recent arrests, Trick had a level of credibility other rappers craved, along with fodder for new lyrics and a new album, but he went in the other direction. Instead of creating a heated tirade that criticizes law enforcement and the establishment, "Thug Matrimony" remains true to past albums by blending club tracks with insightful social and political commentary.
Unfortunately, the thoughtful flow that shone on the title track of 2002's "Thug Holiday" isn't completely replicated on "Thug Matrimony." This time around, it is the club tracks that stand out.
Crunk still rules the South and the Lil' Jon-fueled "Let's Go" is one of the hottest crunk tracks out right now.
Twista is also featured, and his rapid-fire lyricism is a good contrast to the deliberate beat sampled from an Ozzy Osbourne track. Remixes of "Let's Go" will be filling the clubs for quite a while.
"Sugar" is another hit collaboration with Cee-lo, who appeared on the previous album. Trick splits verse duty with Ludacris, and both rappers work to make the country twanged track amusing. Cee-lo's high-pitched singing on a magnetic chorus rounds out the track.
The rest of the album's party songs fall flat in comparison. "M?©nage a Trois" is representative of what went wrong. The wrong rappers were invited to guest: the members of Trick Daddy's clique are not as talented and Jazze Pha hurts both of the tracks that he appears on. Jazze should stick to what he's good at: producing.
The production on "M?©nage" is sloppy. The slow horn trills of the beat grate against most of the rapping. The beat doesn't sound like a finished product and the refrain is more thrown than placed into the mix.
Trick loves the kids. I wouldn't deny that. Even though "Thug Matrimony" doesn't impart lyrics as emotionally moving as those in "Thug Holiday," the new album still includes a social message. The overarching themes are positive ones.
"These are the Daze," "I Wanna Sang," and "The Children's Song" compose a large section of the album and all three songs are dedicated to the poor and marginalized children of America. Children's voices sing the choruses of all three songs, a device that adds to the weight of the message.
Trick's flow is genuine and the rhymes are natural on these inspirational songs. Commendably, by including them, he's sacrificing radio play and record sales that would have been generated by more commercial tracks.
Trick Daddy is big in the South in general and enormous in Florida. They've known him since the days of 2LiveCrew and that is a long time. He honed his sound there and it is specific to the region. Perhaps too specific. It is also ironic that the Southern sound Trick helped popularize may still be hindering the appeal of his music.
