Back in 2006 when we went to Miami to interview Trick for a cover story in GRIP , there was a haunting suspicion among people outside his immediate circle (us) that he suffered from some sort of skin ailment. I’d heard he didn’t normally come out in the daytime and when he did, he wore makeup to cover up skin patches on his face, hands and other exposed parts of his body.

Well, the Native Son (what I titled the story and ironically part of the handle of his forthcoming book) announced yesterday on the Rickey Smiley Morning show that he was diagnosed with Lupus.

“I went to the doctor, Dr. Betty Bellman, and we took all types of tests,” Trick told Ricky Smiley. “I was trying to get rid of Acid—for dry skin that black folks used to have. She did biopsies and all types of blood tests and told me I had the disease Lupus.”

Discoid Lupus, the type Trick was diagnosed with, causes an extremely sensitive reaction to direct sunlight, which does everything to explain why he was opposed to a photo shoot exclusively by the pool that day.

Now that things are under control, Trick confirms he will go harder than ever before, especially with the book – Magic City: Trials of a Native Son – and other projects on the horizon.

 ”MTV Books got my book coming out in stores this summer,” Trick Daddy announced. “They got me playing in a move with a lot of the gangsters from The Wire and a lot of other big, black films. It’s gonna start filming in the next two or three weeks.”