Young Buck's departure from G-Unit was a small piece of news I could've cared less about; but, in hearing that Obie Trice has been dropped from Shady/Aftermath, I really have to wonder what's going on over there at Interscope. Aside from Eminem and 50, it seems like all they do is focus their time on those two (as far as rap is concerned) and it's fuck everybody else.
Jadakiss, for example, was a prime target of this piss poor attitude and, while it's not much of a loss for the label, it ends up hurting the artist the most.
Now, I could understand if things are amicable and it just comes to a point that it's in both interests of the parties involved, but label politics is just something I will never quite understand. Hands down, Obie Trice was one of the most underrated artists in the Shady/Aftermath camp and, undoubtedly, his departure will make him a coveted free agent. I'll admit, his market is not as mainstream as say a Eminem or 50 Cent, but his devoted fanbase will not be far behind. His debut album Cheers is one of the most slept on albums of the past couple of years and, although it failed to do numbers, his second album Second Round's On Me was not half bad either.
As you can tell, I've very disappointed to see an artist of Obie Trice's potential be dropped, but maybe this will spin into a positive. From what I hear, there's no bad blood between him and the folks over at Shady/Aftermath/Interscope so, at least, things remain cool on that front. The only question now is, how will this setback affect Obie's upcoming album Bottom's Up? For now, that question remains to be answered as Obie finds a suitor for this upcoming project, but I'm sure that won't be much of a problem for long. Besides, if all else fails, independent is the way to go (in my opinion), so I guess that's always an ace in the hole. Right?
