During his 10 year rap career, Trick Daddy has accomplished just about everything you would want in hip-hop. He’s become a legend with a catalog of classic albums and songs, pioneered for the south and especially his beloved city of Miami, won awards, made millions of dollars, set trends, but the one thing that’s escaped him during his storied career, he has now; Independency.
“Finally Famous,” he describes of his new album title. “I look at it like this, Finally Famous, I got my own record label situation, I got my publishing situation correct. With my independent deal, I’m gonna eat better than a lot of the average artist does these days. I make my own input and make my own decisions as a CEO this time.”
Last year, Trick Daddy took his own destiny in his hands by leaving long time recording home Slip-N-Slide records and starting his own label Dunk Ryders. Finally Famous, officially launches the new record company and next chapter in T-Double-D’s career.
“As I make money, I spend money,” Trick says about his new venture. “It’s like my early years of hustling. You gotta have that re-up. So, I use my show money as re-up money. I’ve been busy in the kitchen cooking up that good shit and now it’s on. This new album is going to be one of the best of the year.
Trick-born Maurice Young, wanted to go the independent route two albums ago, but with the success of 2004’s Thug Matrimony, he decided not to rock the boat. But after Back By Thug Demand (2006) was released in, he decided a change was needed.
“You go from four videos and four singles to two singles and two videos. To one video and not even one magazine cover,” he said about his situation with Slip-N-Slide/ Atlantic. “Then you’re selling out at the store and your homeboy is excited. But when you sell out in stores, they ain’t got enough product. Something ain’t right. That means you missing out on money. My last album sales and marketing setup was so terrible, it got so bad that the stores wasn’t receiving the records they ordered. While we’re waiting for them to sell the records, they were waiting for us to send them.”
Never the one to be bitter, or dwell too much on the past, Trick moves forward with Finally Famous with a LP that mixes insightful real life accounts with street psalms and records to terrorize the clubs once again as well as tear up the pavement.
“‘I’m sick of all this bullsh–. I want revenge and I want the killas.’ That was an intro I did on one of my previous albums, “Based on A True Story,” Trick began to describe. “That’s how I feel about this album. I’m pissed, I’m sick of this bullsh–. I want revenge and I want the killers. That describes my album. I got something for the ghettoes, I got something you can ride around and smoke to, I got a little something you can vibe and think too. I got something that’s gonna remind you who I am. I covered all bases without the big features, without the big production, cause I got my producers and my own artists.”
“Every song ain’t gonna be for you,” Trick added about the album. “There will be at least one song for you because I’m not in the struggle alone. That’s what my music is about, the struggle.”
The street scorcher “This Tha Life That I Live” is the album’s setup cut and features T Double D wielding vintage aggression.
“I’ll shoot up your whole little set./ Wet up your ‘04 Maybach,” Trick says with blissful belligerence. “No flaws, if it’s a problem./ Miami Gardens, they gon’ hear that./ None of that click clack, you taking them pot shots with.”
“I had to go in and address a few things on that record,” Trick described. “It’s a cut throat game, cut throat world for that matter, but I’m going to keep riding. I also have another song on there called ‘Bitch Ass Niggas.’ I’m sure there are a lot of bitch niggas that you know. Everybody has had some type of encounters with a bitch ass nigga. These guys have no morals, no values, practice no type of ethics. Another favorite song on my album is “That’s How We Do It,” with Betty Wright singing on that. That’s like my Godmother. She’s so talented and down to earth.
Elsewhere, Trick speaks to females who persevere through tough times.
“‘Strong Woman,’” he reveals of another record off his album, “is gonna be big with the ladies, big with the ring tones. Throughout my career, I have rapped about experiences with scandalous women, but I’ve always tried to show a balance as well. ‘Strong Woman,’ I just wanted to make about the ladies out there that keep there households together, teach their kids, keep their mates on point. There are definitely a lot of strong women out there that need to be recognized.”
Trick doesn’t have to look too far for his own strong woman. He and his wife AJ have been married for over five years and the two have a very special project outside of music to help he kids in the community.
“We really want to try and get into Foster Care and find a way to help these children out that don’t have homes. We’re looking to starting a agency to that can lend a hand to this cause.”
Trick still works tirelessly in the community, constantly giving back through his foundation Trick Loves The Kids. He’s working to become a spokesperson for research to combat Lupus, a disease he was stricken with over a decade ago. Elsewhere in entertainment, Trick recently shot his first ever film, it’s a drama called “Just Another Day.”
“It’s got a lot of the actors that’s gonna be big time starring in it,” he says. “It features a lot of the guys from ‘The Wire.’ It’s an intricate movie based around hip-hop and it deals with Miami too. It’s going to be a good movie. What attracted me to being in the film was the challenge of starting another phase in my career. I’ve consistently made hit records, I’ve made records that are hood classic without any radio play, but I’ve always wanted to try my hand at acting. I received a quality script with a great opportunity to play an interesting character, so why not?”
2009 promises to be a very busy year from Trick as he endeavors to make his mark as an entrepreneur. Backed by MTV Books, Trick will release an autobiography later this year, entitled: “Magic City: Trials Of a Native Son,” that will detail Trick’s personal life and rise to iconic rap figure. Next, he will also try his hand at a graphic novel series called “Nann”, which features Trick as a super hero, tackling issues in the community that range from poverty to homelessness to saving the music industry from fraudulent rappers and finally, we can also look forward to the Trick Daddy bobble head as a collector’s item.
“The album is actually the soundtrack for the book,” he says. “I’m telling you from discovering my first love of music to the first time I saw somebody use cocaine. I tell you everything I ever have been arrested for, I speak about going to prison. I tell you the first time I heard the words ‘free base,’ the first crack baby I remember seeing. You’ll get my accounts of surviving three major hurricanes, two major riots. But we’re not getting anybody indicted, I’m not violating any street codes when telling my story.”
Trick Daddy’s first breakthrough in music came in the mid 90’s on Luther Campbell’s club anthem “Scarred.” From there, Trick parlayed the notoriety he received on the guest appearance with his 1997 debut Based on a True Story, which was followed up the next year by one of his favorite LP WWW.Thug.Com. Trick got his first introduction to mainstream success via the album timeless banger “Nann Ni**a” with the rap Bonnie to His Clyde, Trina. From there, Trick flourished with a series of hit records and classic albums including “Shut Up,” “America,” “Thug Holiday,” “Play No Games,” “Sugar (Gimme Some),” “Let’s Go” and “In Da Wind” where his coined phrase “Trick Loves The Kids” came to prominence.
“I’m so proud that I’ve been able to have wonderful longevity in my career without ever having to comprise my messages or my sound,” Trick says. “Now that I am a CEO, I’ll drop jewels on my artist so that that they can carve their way with their own, distinct styles of making music.”
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Born In Harlem, New York Promise Nyc began writing “dope ass” rhymes at the tender age of 5, after the influence of his father’s poetry, and his sister and uncles’ rapping abilities. His first rhyme book was actually taken away by his father, because he was using way too many bad words. His language was just totally unacceptable. But confiscating his book, and making him write “I will not write fuck” 100 times was not enough to stop him from being a ruthless writing machine. Not only did promise write “fuck” again. But he wrote it with passion, surrounded by some of the wittiest metaphors and punchlines known to mankind. In 1993, Promise attended P.S 92, where he met up with Darren Isaiah, who also had a love for rapping. The two became close friends, and developed a super group known as “Whole Fam” which consisted of Promise, Darren Isaiah, Shanelle, and Y Dot. 