Obie Trice is back despite the many setbacks of the past year this world has tested him with. The outcome, a deeply mature, dark, and lyrically dense Obie. The album's intro says enough about the frustration and anger of a man who almost lost his life, to

In this year of tragic and unfortunate events: getting shot in the back of the head, his cousin and label mate murdered senselessly, and the deterioration of lyrics in modern Hip-Hop in general, "Mr. No Gimmicks" himself is back for another round of heat to keep us buzzed and forget our problems. The intro shows our protaganist as a lazy, misguided, teen in a mean state of angst as his mother does only what she thinks is best: kicking him out the house, leaving a young Obie to fend for himself in the dangerous streets of Detroit. This disturbing quarrel between mother and offspring is followed by the bass-heavy "Wake Up". Led by strong drums, Eminem draws the curtain to reveal Obie standing there telling us tales of his various sights in his life with vivid detail; also cautioning his people to get aware of what's going on. Stemming from his incident on New Years Eve comes the chant-driven and surprisingly morbid but catchy hook of "Violent" finding Trice as a vicious grown man that doesn't feel like taking another bullet to the cranium. The single "Wanna Know" which was made popular by the show "Entourage" displays how well Obie sounds on different types of beats as Emile cooks up a Van Halen sample to ease the struggle of a chorus and to overall sound good. In one line Obie played with the difference between clever and disgusting when he rhymed "But niggas bleed like bitches/ I'm truly believing this/Once a month/they wake up with a Obie tampon/Inserted in they nuts/"(Ewwww). The underrated Detroitee emcee flexes his lyrical dexterity over the quick and rapid "Lay Down", in which like "Violent" presents Obie as man not willing to die until it's his time:"I would never let em give it to me/I gotta live to be a hundred and three/". Then comes the Akon-assisted and produced "Snitch" as Obie doodles a picture of a (what else) snitch, rat, Sammy "The Bull",...Irv Gotti and the way he exacts revenge on his newfound foe and explains his discomfort with ever being a incarcerated scarface:"Even if we bubble slow, we get it eventually/No penitentary, there will be no climincy/You will meet the lowest snitch in given us a century/". In perhaps the best track on the album is "Cry Now" backed up by flamboyant horns delivered by The Sick Notes comes the boasts of the Oster warning others to cry now, get it out the way because he is coming harder than before:" Papa gone keep poppin Cris on you hoes/And piss on those who exist as my foes/". Synthesized voices repeat the name of our author as he gives a first person view of what he went through the struggles of every day on "Ballad Of Obie". Eminem finally lightens up a little bit with a rapid hand clap and sporadic 808 as Obie skims the slightly formulaic "Jamican Girl" with the newcomers Brick and Lace. Scarface(Tony)makes a cameo on "Kill Me A Mutha" a self-explanatory fable of Obie's lamenting over random dudes who are a bit too friendly in social settings(no homo). The drug-laced "Out Of State" finds our hero rushing down to the ATL and meet up with the underclassman Stat Quo. Straight outta Detroit comes Trell with a feel-good, bouncy-Nate-Dogg-hook-assisted-hit as Obie lays his pimp hand on the mic to tell us how he handles business. On one of the two Trey Songz accompanied "Ghetto"(which also doesn't need any type of explanation)gives Songz a little edge as he belts out:"I'm from the motherfucking slums where the cops don't come/Turn the lights on and the bugs don't run/You ain't shit without no gun/In the ghetto/". An "incidental" D-Town anthem is seen in "There They Go" where all the noticeable Detroit rappers hop on to feed you little bit of what it's like to be in a Midwest cypher. Big Herk and Trick Trick come through to toy around but (of course)gets shut down by the long awaited verse from Mr. Slim Shady himself:"A meat cleaver leave a gash in a bitch's ass/see her dreams of being an R&B singer, diva,/leave her face/cut her from the waist/ ah man what a waste/of a pretty face and this place ain't just safe/". "Mama" brings you the second visit from Trey Songz with another great chorus and displays these two artist's chemistry as Obie informs of his mother's influence on his life. The most commercial of all the songs on the album "24's" still shows the custom Miskeen-wearing MC in prime form for a machine-gun fire flow throughout the song. Curtis "Harmonizing" Jackson played sidekick for almost 4 minutes to Trice's designated driver and it still seemed 50 was yelling from the backseat of how the song should sound on "Everywhere I Go". Our scroll of scriptures comes to it's end with "Obie Story" starting out almost the exact contrast of the intro to find a younger Obie getting good grades and picking out some new J's with his mother who was more than happy to front the bill. The production by Jonathan "J.R." Rotem seems brillaint because much like teenagers, the mood switches seamlessly from happy to tragic in seconds while Obie lays down his life story of how he got to the point of where he is at as a whole. Second Round's On Me is a great album which documents the mind of a man...simply a man who has had experiences both good and bad. A man who is grateful for the opportunities he has gotten over the years. A man who is thankful that this album wasn't his last.