Obie Trice

“Obie Trice, real name, no gimmicks!” He’s a man of his word, too; when he famously introduced himself hence at the start of Eminem’s 2002 comeback single ‘Without Me’, Obie Trice wasn’t kidding; unlike so many of his contemporaries, he really does go by that name. That kind of exposure for him, too, inevitably did not come without positive ramifications for his then-fledgling career; having been signed to Shady Records in 2000, he’d soon after make appearances on both D12’s Devil’s Night and the soundtrack to 8 Mile. It wouldn’t be until 2003, though, that he’d finally drop his eagerly-anticipated debut album, Cheers, which hit number five on the U.S. charts and spawned the hit single ‘Got Some Teeth’. Since then, he’s left Shady to set up his own label under Universal, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t retained the support of Dre and Eminem, who both were involved with the production of his third full-length, Bottoms Up, which landed in 2012. After surviving a near-fatal shooting in 2005 - the bullet remains lodged in his skull - Trice has continued to tour sporadically, most recently touring the U.S. with Naughty by Nature and DJ UNK last year, where he ran through his back catalogue, backed by a DJ, and dropped a couple of new tracks from his forthcoming The Hangover LP too; once it’s out, he might make his first trip back to the UK for a while; his last visit was as part of a D12 tour back in 2009.