Photographer: Patrick Adams.

Trick Daddy built a slow rep as one of hip-hop's premier thug wordsmiths, first in his local Miami scene then (super-gradually) nationally. By 2009's FINALLY FAMOUS, the thirty-something Daddy was both wide veteran and a name, but still as connected to the streets as in his hustling days of the mid-`90s. He still winds lyrics around hypnotic super-Southern beats at a ferocious pace, rapping about corner stores, fiends, section 8, and his heroes with a bizarre blend of dead seriousness and sly humor.