Album Review: obie trice bottoms up carlin

Returning from an extended hiatus, Obie Trice picks up where he left off in 2006 and continues with his succession of alcohol-themed album titles. Following the artist's platinum-selling Cheers (2003), his critically-acclaimed Second Round's On Me (2006) and the 2009 Special Reserve compilation album, the 'Real Name, No Gimmicks' rapper delivers Bottoms Up, maintaining this curiously gimmicky and rather contradictory trend. This statement would have stood as a relevant observation just under a decade ago but now reads as a hypercritical detail of the musician's work. In both subsistence and analysis, the power and relevance of Trice's most recent material is waning and lacking in significance to the present day.

Originally set for a 2008 release through Shady Records, Bottoms Up has been delayed several times over the past four years, finally emerging now under his own Black Market Entertainment label. Despite this, both Eminem and Dr. Dre remain in the album's production credits, with Shady himself featuring on the tune Richard. Unfortunately their input seems to have contributed little to the overall final product, with Dre's efforts condensed to the shortest track on the album - a simple introductory piece - and while Eminem's guest appearance is a highlight, it's nowhere near the quality a fan of either artist (and for that matter the hip hop genre) has come to expect.

What has materialised over the course of the record's prolonged production is the continual disruption of both the commercial and creative process, the result of which is an album that is broken in focus and lost in its sense of purpose. There is enjoyment to be found here, but without stable grounding it's a weak presentation.