BIO

Blessed with the chameleon-like ability to flip from a booty-shakin party starter to head-bussin hooligan to insightful educator, Miami bad boy Trick Daddy has been one of the most prolific southern talents since he first stepped onto the scene on Uncle Luke's timeless 1996 dance floor staple, "Scarred."

Within the eight calendars that T-Double-D has been putting in work, he has spawned five solo albums, four gold and platinum plaques and a bevy of ghetto hymnals. Generating such diverse hits as battle of the sexes "Na'an" with female agitator Trina, light-hearted ditty "Shut Up" and socially aware "Amerika," Trick Daddy hoisted himself from the Southern underground to national admiration.

Now, after a two-year hiatus since his 2002 testament, Thug Holiday, Trick returns to prove his undying love for the grind and ties the knot on his sixth solo Slip-N-Slide/Atlantic outing, Thug Matrimony: Married To The Streets.

"If you evaluate the stuff I said in my past five albums, I kept it real from day one. It's easy to keep it real; that way, you won't get caught up in being a fake," Trick explains.

Born Maurice Young in Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital and reared on the wrong side of the tracks, the artist formerly known as Trick Daddy Dollars has seen his share of trying times. As one of 27 children between his mother and father, Trick got more ass whippings than lectures during his formative years.

"I come from a big family. All of us are different and got our own ways," says Trick. "My daddy (is) a real street nigga. My momma is from Carolina, so she growed up in the struggle. My momma got 11 children from 10 different men. My daddy got 16 sons from all kinds of women.

"My momma met my daddy in Miami. Both of them are hood; they are ghetto. If my momma and daddy would've stayed together, one of them would've been dead, and the other would've been locked up for it."

Although Trick wasn't born with a silver spoon dangling from his gold baby teeth, he absorbed every lesson that his parents embedded in him. But instead of letting the ghetto that surrounded him take him under, the Liberty City survivor made the most out of an unpleasant situation.

"A lotta black folks learn to tell jokes to better deal with their problems, and that's how I learned to deal with my problems growing up," he enlightens. "We growed up hard in the projects, on welfare and food stamps. So instead of going to school and have somebody talk about my momma on food stamps or welfare, I would tell them 'my momma gotta go get recertified for her food stamps' or 'we gone trade these food stamps in and go get in the dice game.' I learned to laugh and joke at myself, so before you know it, they're on my side. They're waiting on me to crack on somebody else."

Naturally, he imparts those same self-taught life lessons within his rhymes. Over the soulful, mid-tempo production of "Trapped," Trick warns of the revolving prison system for too many young African-American men who fall victim to Americanism. On the moving chorus, Ronald Isley wails: "No matter how loud I cry, it don't seem loud enough/ Lord, I hope you're hearing me/ This goes out to the lonely streets."

On the uplifting, R&B-ish testimony "These Are the Days," Trick borrows heart-felt sentient from MC Lyte's unforgettable verse from "Self Destruction." In his signature burly baritone, he spits: "Leave the guns and the crack and the knives alone/ It's T-Double on the microphone/ And I can see trouble right in front your home/ As far as the kids are concerned/ Just let em live and learn/ And let em grow to be older than us/ And teach em more than gang banging, drug dealing and hold ups.../ They gone love and respect us/ And now you're having more doctors, lawyers, teachers, preachers and deep sea explorers."

"Rappers tend to use words sometimes that just rhyme and don't really mean nothing. I tell it like it t-i-is. I tell it like I see it. I tell it like I vision it. I tell it like I live it. It ain't no fantasy raps in here," Trick enlightens. "I would be more of a rock and roll (musician) or heavy metal or the blues than I am a rapper."

His rock and roll roots are definitely felt over the blaring lead single "Let's Go." Riding an intense sample of heavy metal madman Ozzy Osborne's cult classic "Crazy Train," Trick opens the ceremony with ATL hype man Lil Jon and Chi-town's finest Twista. The threesome gets crunk as they bellow over piercing guitar riffs and hammering bass.

On the old school-tinged "Down South," the Dade County veteran takes it back to the days of the Pac-Jam with club hoppers Ying Yang Twins and female nemesis Trina. Over a witty re-working of Midnight Star's 80s hit "No Parking on the Dance Floor," they pay homage to their beloved Dirty South.

Letting his sensitive side seep to the surface, Trick teams up with Jazze Pha on the mid-tempo serenade "Forever." Looming over funky electric piano chords and an interpolation of Smokey Robinson's classic "Cruisin," Jazze offers Sunday morning purring on the hook.

And on "Sugar On The Tongue" featuring Ludacris and Cee-Lo crooning on hook, Trick gets his freak on accompanied by country acoustic guitar strums. Comparing women to juicy fruits, he licks: "Orally I speak the truth/ Blacker the berry/ the sweeter the juice/ Florida oranges and Georgia peaches/ When they're nice and ripe/ They're the best for eating/ Southern boys- they be craving for a old/ Slice of pie after their main course."

On the floss-heavy "That's How We Ride," Trick enjoys the compensation for his labor. Beside self-proclaimed king of the south T.I., the duo spit game of digital dashboards in "Beemers and Benzes and Hummers and Chevys" atop old school 808 claps and the theme from horror flick "Halloween."

Packed with more bang than an ass full of hemorrhoids, Thug Matrimony: Married To The Streets is truly Trick Daddy's finest work to date. Marrying thought-provoking prose with real life heartbreak and guaranteed party favorites, Trick has truly outdone himself with a match made in thug heaven.

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