Obie Trice to Release First Album Since Departure from Shady Records

Obie Trice has announced plans to release his first album since leaving Shady Records in 2008. The disc, titled 'Special Reserve,' will see an official release date of Dec. 15 and will feature eleven new tracks composed by up-and-coming Canadian producer MoSS. MoSS, the first recruit to DJ Premier's Works of Mart -- a small label project devoted to only signing hip-hop's taste-making producers -- will release the album through his own label Mossappeal Music.

Trice's two previous albums, 2003's 'Cheers,' and 2006's 'Second Round's on Me,' sold more than 1.5 million copies during his eight-year stint on Shady Records. The Michigan native was the second signee to Eminem's Detroit-born label, which he later left over creative differences. On the 2008 track 'The Giant,' Obie hinted that trouble with Shady Record's distributing label, Interscope Records, might have been the real reason for his departure. "I murdered e'ything when I wore the Shady logo," he said on the track. "O is a mogul/Low on the totem pole 'cause Interscope's loco/Now I'm gettin' mo' dough."

Obie insists that he still maintains a good relationship with Shady Records.