Miami’s favorite thug and diamond princess are poised to grab the spotlight on hip-hop’s biggest night.
Trick Daddy and Trina, the Slip ‘N Slide Records label mates from Liberty City, will be vying for golden mike statuettes and performing at The Source Hip-Hop Music Awards 2001. Trick Daddy has been nominated for live performer of the year and Trina for new artist of the year.
Trick, born Maurice Young, has two platinum albums under his belt and his latest album, Thugs Are Us, is gold and approaching platinum. Katrina Taylor, better known as Trina, released her debut record, Da Baddest Bitch, a year ago.
Growing up in the same inner-city neighborhood, hanging out with the same people, and sharing similar dreams, it might seem like Trick and Trina arrived at their place in the limelight by similar paths — two kids from the ghetto who got lucky.
But things aren’t always as they seem.
Trick, 26, has been rapping since he was a child and found himself penning lyrics in prison when he was 17. Trina, 24, was poised to embark on a career in real estate when she agreed to a cameo appearance on one of Trick’s singles in 1998.
Trick’s music is a reflection of the life he knew in Liberty City’s projects — growing up with nothing but dreams of having everything. He raps with authority about the allure and dangers of the hustle — fast money to be had through drugs, guns and gambling.
“Trick is very genuine and authentic,” says Erik Parker, music editor for The Source magazine, which sponsors the annual awards show. “He doesn’t put on airs, and it comes across in his music.”
Trina’s music also reflects life in the streets, just not hers. Her album is a mixture of her own youthful experiences — losing friends, heartache, dating the wrong men — mixed with the experiences of others.
The album “is bits and pieces of things that I saw growing up,” Trina says.
Both artists lace their tales of the ‘hood with profanity and teeter on the edge of vulgarity, but Trick and Trina explain that their music is neither.
“I tell it like it is. I keep it real,” Trick says.
“It’s life,” Trina says.
Trick Daddy: A new life after brother’s death
“I wanna buy me a Benz but I’m fifty-grand short. I got to get this cheese [money] without a nigga getting caught.” — from the song They Don’t Live Long by Trick Daddy.
He’s got his Mercedes-Benz now, and a $163,000 house in Miramar. He says he just sleeps there, and spends most of his time in Miami.
“I wanted to rap since I was a child, but no one ever took me serious,” he says.
He grew up the second of 11 children in the so-called pork-n-bean projects, the Liberty Square housing development.
“My mama had 11 children from 10 different men,” Trick says. He grew up “with powdered eggs and welfare cheese.”
“The food stamps came twice da’ month. It was like, Mama, you get the girls stuff, I get the boysYou ain’t have no one else to do for you.”
For Trick, finding trouble came along with growing up in the projects. He says he went to prison twice before he was 16.
“Every time I went to prison it was for some sh– I didn’t do,” he proclaims.
But court records say otherwise. At 17, Maurice Young was charged as an adult and convicted of armed cocaine trafficking with the intent to distribute, then sentenced to four years in prison.
According to court records, he ran a stop sign in south Miami-Dade County and was pulled over. Police found several packages tightly wound in gray rubber behind the driver’s seat. They also found a 9mm Walther PPK semiautomatic handgun. The rubber packages turned out to be three kilos of cocaine.
After serving a year of his sentence, Trick was released, but found himself back in prison a month later. Court records state that he violated the terms of his probation by discharging a gun in public.
But Trick never put his rap dreams in his pocket. He rapped in the penitentiary to entertain himself and his fellow inmates.
“It was something doing in the pen. When all you got is a 2-by-2-foot space, [you had] to entertain each other. All we had was each other,” he says.
Trick’s incentive to get out of jail and stay out was the death of his brother Derek “Hollywood” Harris, who was gunned down while sitting in a car.
“I remember Trick coming to Hollywood’s funeral with shackles on his legs, being escorted by the police,” says Ted Lucas, Hollywood’s best friend and founder and president of Slip ‘N Slide Records. “We sat next to each other at the funeral and he was like, ‘I’m gon’ do it this time, I’m gon’ stay out of prison.'”
It was a lifelong dream of Hollywood’s to make his little brother one of the biggest rappers in the hip-hop industry, Lucas says.
“So, I felt like it was my job to carry out his dream, but I was concerned about him getting into trouble again,” he says.
When Trick was released in 1995, he had written nearly 100 songs while in prison. He recorded his first song in 1996 with Luther “Luke” Campbell, whose rap music was the center of a national controversy over obscenity in 1990.
“He wasn’t talking about nothin’,” Trick says. “Luke made it bad for us. Everyone thought it was all ’bout the women and the beach. [The rest of the country] didn’t know about Liberty City, Carol City, Opa-locka and Overtown.”
Lucas decided to take a chance on the wild child, and went to produce all four of Trick’s albums. With Slip ‘N Slide, Trick Daddy and other artists helped show the world another side of Miami.
“No one ever took ’em to the ghetto. I took ’em to the ghetto,” Trick says.
Trina: Proud to be a strong role model
“I don’t wanna holla at no … Trick. He all over there smelling like boonk [cocaine laced marijuana] and Hennessey and sh–. Hell no!” — Trina in the Trick Daddy song Nann Nigga, a title that loosely means “no one else.”
Trina was Trick’s natural choice to cameo in this 1998 hit. The song adds a crude edge to the battle of the sexes, and it needed a woman who could spit lyrics like ammo.
Lucas and Trick immediately thought of Trina, who had dated Trick’s brother and Lucas’ best friend, Hollywood.
“She’s got a real slick mouth. You know, like one of those girls in the ghetto that be hollerin’ up and down the street,” says Lucas. “When Hollywood died the three of us just stayed real close.”
Trina graduated from Miami Northwestern Senior High School and got her real-estate agent certification. But before she accepted a position at Century 21, her dream of entering the entertainment world came true.
She was featured on Nann, toured with Trick for a year, then released her own album.
Acknowledging her music is sexually explicit, Trina does consider herself a role model for young women.
“The business is really male dominated,” she says. “Being a strong female who can hold her own ground and say, ‘Look, this is me, accept it or don’t,’ makes me a role model.”
Trina, who also can be seen on Missy Elliot’s new video for One Minute Man, is wrapping up her second album, reviewing movie scripts, and exploring all avenues of the entertainment industry through her corporation, Diva Enterprises.
“It’s a big industry. I just don’t want to stay focused on music. I want to branch off and do other things,” she says.
The oldest of three children, Trina’s assured sense of self comes from a family of powerful women.
“My mom’s real cool. We’re like sisters. My father wasn’t there, but she was always there,” she says.
Trina’s grandmother, aunts, and especially her mother influenced most aspects of her life, including her decision not to drink, smoke, or do drugs, and her strong sense of faith.
“I pray whenever I get a chance. If I’m at a stop light, I pray,” she says.
Lucas shares her faith. “We blessed, that’s what it is,” he says. “It ain’t Trick, it ain’t Trina, it ain’t me, it’s God. Our music may not sound like it, but we know where our blessings come from.”
Akilah Johnson can be reached at or 305-810-5001.
