Obie Trice at the Red Room

As concrete proof that life is never fair, sometimes the world gives us artists who seem like guaranteed picks to click, and then never do. Take Obie Trice, for example. Back when Eminem was the biggest rap star on the planet, the man born, well, Obie Trice looked like he was going to ride ol’ Slim Shady’s coattails to fame and fortune. Remember “Without Me”, and how it started out with the vocal sample “Obie Trice, real name, no gimmicks…”? And how, later in the song, Marshall Mathers informed poor old Moby that he could get stomped by Obie? For a short while, it looked like Trice was going to cash in on all the name-checking. His 2003 Eminem-produced debut, Cheers, was something of a classic, and not just because of the blue-chip single “Got Some Teeth”. Flash forward almost a decade, and the Detroit City rapper—on tour for his latest, Bottoms Up—is still waiting for life to become like something out of “Niggas in Paris”. Which is fine, seeing as how that means we get to see Trice at the Red Room tonight (June 28), as opposed to Rogers Arena, which is where he once seemed headed.