January 03, 2005 @ 1:15 pm

Trick Daddy - Thug Matrimony (Slip-N-Slide/Atlantic)

by: Mosi Reeves

In the two years since he released the gold-selling Thug Holiday, Trick Daddy has settled down and married long-time girlfriend Amane Burnett.

In the two years since he released the gold-selling Thug Holiday, Trick Daddy has settled down and married long-time girlfriend Amane Burnett. And as other Dirty South MCs bumrush the national stage, the platinum-grilled rapper has been relatively undetected. But Trick is back on the scene with his sixth album, Thug Matrimony: Married to the Streets, to quiet those critics who think wedlock has softened the one-time felon. Still equipped with the kind of street-savvy cuts that make him a true contender for the King of the South title, Thug Matrimony’s pop sensibilities elevate Trick above a congested sea of thugs. Busting straight out of the gate is the lead single, “Let’s Go,” a crowd-pleasing anthem that samples hair-metal icon Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train.” Lil Jon screams, “Let’s go / If you want it / You can get it let me know,” and Trick fiercely testifies, “I’m strictly for the thugs / I’m for the streets / And straight out the ’hood.” Trick also justifies his thug roots on “Fuckin’ Around,” a boisterous, bounce-driven collaboration with T.I., Young Jeezy, and Kase 1, on which Trick warns, “Y’all niggas keep fuckin’ around / Get stuck in the ground.” Not one to hold his tongue on matters of a sexual nature, Trick links up with Khia (“My Neck, My Back”) on “J.O.D.D. (Jump On da Dick)” for an explicit sexual romp through the strip clubs. The Miami bass–influenced “Down Wit da South,” featuring Trina and the Ying Yang Twins, is sure to have saltshakers quaking throughout the Dirty. But on the uneventful “Ménage à Trois,” Trick’s supporting cast of Jazze Pha, Smoke (Field Mobb), and Money Mark comes up short. With songs like “Fuckin’ Around,” Trick returns to his brand-name raunchiness. The album’s true highlights, however, come in the form of well-crafted pop tunes that find Trick playing big brother to the youth. In 2002, he said, “Trick love the kids,” and now, with the introspective “These Are the Daze,” he’s showing them how to live a better life. On the positively encouraging “I Wanna Sang,” he unabashedly harmonizes in a low baritone over an interpolation of Foster Sylvers’s classic “I’m Your Puppet.” Even though the album includes a saccharine ballad, “The Children’s Song,” it is a Trick trademark; the earnest sincerity in his message saves it from becoming drearily preachy. He loves the kids, and they love him right back. One of the album’s most poignant moments, though, comes from the soul-tinged, Scott Storch–helmed “I Cry,” which pairs Trick with Ronald Isley for a heartfelt excursion through darker times. On the flip side, the breezy “Sugar (Gimme Some)” eases the mood, as Trick praises all the “nice, clean, and decent women,” alongside Cee-Lo and the always captivating Ludacris. With an ingenious combination of songs that will both excite the clubs and beckon listeners to think, Thug Matrimony proves that even the most hard-core thug of thugs can grow up. Creating a more mature, complex self-portrait, the Liberty City hustler asks hip hop fans to consider him a man who uses his past sins to inform misguided souls. Even though the album showcases a lighter side of Trick, it still remains true to the streets that raised him. And this is the bond he will hold with his audience until death do him part.

Article tags: Trick, Daddy, Thug, Matrimony, Slip-N-Slide/Atlantic