In the Hip-Hop world the tough “street thug” persona is one that some try to embody and one that many fans are drawn too. In a few cases, certain rappers have had their credibility questioned for many reasons. The most the important is when secrets from their past arise that totally contradict their “thuggish” nature.
Rapper Trick Daddy has been thuggin’ his way around this industry from his beginning nearly 12 years ago. In 1997, the Miami, Florida, bred MC dropped his debut album Based on a True Story. During the course of his career he would go on to create eight studio albums [including his new one] generating hits such as “I’m a Thug,” “Nann N***a,” “Shut Up,” among others. Earlier this year Trick Daddy revealed that he suffers from the incurable autoimmune disease Lupus, which makes the immune system attack the body’s cells and tissue. He also made news after claiming that he was going to stop taking medicine for the illness.
Despite it all Trick Daddy is still hard at work starting with his new movement Dunk Ryder Records. He recently released his new LP Finally Famous: Born A Thug, Still A Thug, which unfortunately only hit number 34 in its first week selling nearly 13,000 copies. This new album was his first since his separation from Slip-N-Slide Records, the company, which Trick Daddy undoubtedly helped to flourish.
AllHipHop.com caught up with Trick Daddy and spoke about the release of his new album Finally Famous, his new autobiography, Trina, and the violence among our youth.
AllHipHop.com: It has been about three years since you last put out album, what has been going on in your life since then?
Trick Daddy: I’m working on a book and my situation as far as contractual wise. You know it takes a while when you’re dealing with music and the technicalities dealing with my profession. Other than that, I’ve been trying to get back to the basics and give the fans what there missing.
AllHipHop.com: This is the first album that you are releasing independently, why did you part ways with Slip-N-Slide Records?
Trick Daddy: I’m a grown man now, and my work there is done. Its time for me to do bigger things, time for me to be a boss, and learn the business more.
AllHipHop.com: You started your own label situation, Dunk Ryder Records. What is your plan for this new company?
Trick Daddy: We’re not looking to sell any drug dealer records; we’re just basically going out there getting that unique sound. We’re doing the same thing that the independent labels of the past have done successfully as far as So So Def, Cash Money, and No Limit. You couldn’t come to me rapping about doing certain things like hanging out on the corner. A 40 year old ain’t got no business hanging down on the corner I don’t care if he’s singing or rapping.
AllHipHop.com: You recently dropped your new album Finally Famous. Talk about the experience of preparing for the release now that you are an independent artist running the show.
Trick Daddy: All the “talk to the manager, not right now, if he’s on the song we can’t release that as a single, you can’t do a video,” I ain’t with all that sh*t. Besides that it’s hard when it comes to the money issue, with the deal I have, I’m my label, so I pay for my own stuff. People wanna ask questions like why Trick hasn’t done a video yet, I’m working on doing a video, but my first single hasn’t taken off on video big enough. It took off on radio for me to release the album, but not big enough for me to spend all these thousands of dollars on videos. There already aren’t many video channels or stations with leeway to play them. So I give the people what they demand, once I go with my next single I can tell from the feedback and response that I get on airplay and comments from the record pools, and I’ll go from there.
AllHipHop.com: You have a song on the album titled “I Can Tell” where you’re referring to some females as hoes, but then you have the song like “Strong Woman.” Theses songs are two different spectrums. So what inspired them?
Trick Daddy: Well with “I Can Tell,” you never put a b*tch or a hoe in the same category of a woman because they don’t do the same thing. They don’t have any boundaries whereas a woman is different because she has morals. The moral of the story is opinions are like a#######, everybody got them. You have to respect the other person, the other mind, respect the light the same way you respect the dark. If you understand that you don’t have to live that way, you don’t have to agree, but it all about just respecting.
“Strong Woman” is for the women about respect, the women who didn’t chase after n****s for child support, in some cases some had too. The “Strong Woman” song is the women that didn’t raise their kids referring to them saying “you remind me of your sorry ass father,” didn’t hold grudges, and still struggling even if they don’t have much. That’s the difference in those two songs.
AllHipHop.com: Think back to your debut album, how would you say that you’ve evolved as an artist?
Trick Daddy: A lot of people say that my first album was my best album, but personally a lot of songs that I did then I wouldn’t do now because times have changed. Otherwise, my music is all believable; it’s all stories, and all things that I’ve done. The different ways that I’ve lived, the way that I think in life, so that’s the only thing about my music that stays the same. If you’re looking for me to do the same songs like I did on my first ever recording, you’re not going to find that!
AllHipHop.com: Do you feel that you’re given the respect that you deserve in the Hip-Hop community?
Trick Daddy: According to where it comes from and how it comes to me, the conversations and complements that I get from people can become an insult or disrespectful. When you’re talking to me and all you know is “Nann” and only thing you know is “Take It to the House”. You shouldn’t criticize nor judge me if you weren’t a true fan. If you didn’t spend your time, your money, and if my music didn’t take you to a point.
Even if you were a fan and at some point you felt like damn Trick could’ve done better than that. Even if you were a fan that took a chance to buy a Trick Daddy cd and didn’t like it or see a Trick Daddy show. That’s the problem with the media in the world today, everybody always got the sh*t they want to Twitter about, comment on Facebook, Myspace, all the other websites, and blog about people who their not even familiar with. Get familiar and then you’ll understand what Trick Daddy has brought to Hip-Hop, then you’ll understand a lot of reaction and a lot of comments that are said about me are those of the haters.
AllHipHop.com: So why do you believe that you are getting a hard rap?
Trick Daddy: I don’t believe I’m getting a hard rap, I believe that people are now coming back to realize about Trick. We done found fakes, we done found that this dude right here ain’t what he said and Trick ain’t try to be no more than a thug. They give me the conversation like they just realizing what’s going on. A lot of people call for schemes and gimmicks, but I don’t blame anyone. I just say if you’re a Trick Daddy fan, even if you’re a past Trick Daddy fan, you appreciate my music or you don’t. That’s dealing with any sport, any profession.
AllHipHop.com: How do you feel about the amount of respect that the south is receiving in Hip-Hop?
Trick Daddy: If our conversation starts with, coming from the South, like the south ain’t anything but a location. What do you mean coming from the south? We’re human beings. If anything, coming from the south we had it harder, when they would not play our records, east coast or west coast. I’m tired of black folks using the racist card talking about what the white man done, I’m tired of that sh*t just as much as I’m tired people acting like when the south made it in Hip-Hop we broke a boundary. We didn’t break a boundary, we opened yall eyes.
AllHipHop.com: You mentioned you are working on the book titled “Magic City: Trials Of A Native Son,” what is it about?
Trick Daddy: The book is my lifestyle and what I’ve seen. It’s like the autobiography of the whole Miami, before me and while I’m here. It’s the Scarface, The First 48, and all the things you’ve ever heard about Miami all in a bubble. All raw, it’s real, and respectable to the point that it will make you think, so that’s how it was. It’s 98 percent wrapped, pressed, and ready to go.
AllHipHop.com: You and Trina were like the ultimate team, could we expect to hear some work from you two in the future?
Trick Daddy: I need you to call Trina and you need to talk to her. I personally think that Trina is a better Trina with Trick. Those sexy-jazzy chicks, they need that thug, they need that thug n***a for guidance and protection. That’s what Trina and Trick bring you. They bring you the real Bonnie and Clyde with no strings attached and nothing sugar coated. For me, I would love to work with Trina. I was actually talking to brother the other day about even just doing some songs, giving it to her and say okay this is what we’re gonna do, you just do your part.
I admit that I’m a prejudice person, I love kids, I hate beggars, I can’t stand backstabbers, and I despise a snitch. That makes me prejudice if you think about it in a sense, another thing I’m prejudice about is my city. I’m gonna rep my city to the fullest! Trina is apart of that and under no circumstances would I ever want to see that do bad, or fail, under no pretense have I ever thought like that. I’ve never been considered as a chief, but I think I could hold down the tribe and until then I’ll be a hell of a good Indian. So I’ve never been trying to take over Miami.
AllHipHop.com: How are things with you and Rick Ross since you cleared up the allegation that you were responsible for the prison guard rumors?
Trick Daddy: I don’t discuss or talk about buddy or nothing. No type of answers on interviews about him and I said what I had to say about him.
AllHipHop.com: We all know that Trick Daddy loves the kids, so in light of the recent tragedy in Chicago where 16 year old Derrion Alberts was beaten to death, where do you believe the problem starts that is causing our young children to act out with this type of violence?
Trick Daddy: I think it’s the parents and the media. Our government, while they put a lot of strain on certain things, they need to put strain on others. More parents need to be allowed to beat they kids a**, chastise them on another level, and where the kids are respecting them instead of liking them. I don’t think that it is important that your kid likes you. I think that as long as your kid respects you, they have no choice but to like you. As they grow older to be adults then their going to raise their kids the same way because they’ll realize how good they had it and how fortunate they were to have good parents.
A lot of the TV shows have sexual content or content dealing with some type of violence, drugs, but they censor our videos like if there’s a difference. I watch shows on Court TV, A&E, and shows like Dexter. What is the difference between that and watching The Wire? The Wire is something that’s going on that they don’t want anyone to know about, but they take the poor image and lock up our poor black youth. They don’t care about the unsolved murders that occur in the streets, we have to pay more attention. America has become a very cold place. You can hear a car alarm and people won’t even look out there window anymore, everybody’s worrying about themselves. We need to get back to the days of what we all dreamed.
