By: Andrew Beaujon

Unless you skipped dinner, you probably didn't see Detroit native Obie Trice on this summer's Rock the Mic tour--Eminem's latest protege opened the shows at 6:30 P.M. "It's either this or the 'hood," says former drug dealer Trice, stoically, minutes before his ten-minute set in Baltimore. Most people in the arena are still looking for their seats, but Trice, 25, hits the stage hard, barking his CD's release date every 20 seconds. After watching labelmate 50 Cent's album explode, he's ready. "It's time to go," he says. "It's my time."

Eminem (who had Trice record a vocal on "Without Me") executive-produced his Shady Records debut, Cheers, featuring the snaky single "Got Some Teeth," which is about going home with a less-than-fine young lady. Trice quickly points out that despite what happens in the song's video, he has never found his bedmate's choppers in a water glass. The album's title, however, is apt for a man who drinks half a fifth of vodka onstage--and for someone who, until recently, was saving his crew's empties in garbage bags on the tour bus to later take advantage of Michigan's generous bottle-deposit laws. "That's like ten cents a whop!" he says, wistfully. "It's some pretty nice change!"