Trick Daddy may wear the thug mantle proudly, but on the inside he’s a soft touch.

The native of Liberty City (one of Miami’s roughest ‘hoods) plans to hold a fund-raiser for the New Orleans Boys & Girls Clubs in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A joint effort between his Trick Luvs Da Kids Foundation and Atlantic Records’ Single Parent Initiative, it’s scheduled for Oct. 29 in Miami.

“They need all the help they can get over there,” Trick said from Tallahassee, Fla., where he was preparing to watch the Florida State-Miami football game on Labor Day. “It’s unexplainable.”

Born Maurice Young, Trick witnessed Mother Nature’s devastation firsthand 13 years ago when Hurricane Andrew, a category 5 storm, swept through Miami-Dade County. Now he wants to help his Crescent City brethren.

“I’ve seen whole city blocks wiped off, but this is so much worse,” Trick said. “This is like 80 percent of the whole city.”

Though rapper Kanye West made some controversial statements last week about President Bush’s response to the disaster, Trick said he’s not sure skin color was a factor. Among other things, West said Bush “doesn’t care about black people.”

“I think it’s deeper than not caring about black people, to be honest,” Trick said. “If something like that had happened in a different part of the country, in different neighborhoods, it would’ve been the same thing. I think it’s more about George W. Bush not knowing what to do.”

He said blacks share a common heritage and need to come together to recover from Katrina’s aftermath.

“Black folks, all we got is ourselves. All black folks are from the South. We were all brought over on slave ships from Africa.”

He’s also bringing a newfound maturity to his music, especially on his latest release, “Thug Matrimony: Married to the Streets.”

“It’s life, man. Hell is on earth, and all I’m trying to do is get to heaven,” he said.

The single “Sugar on the Tongue,” with its catchy hook sung by Atlanta rappers Ludacris and Cee-Lo, is sweetening the airwaves as we speak. Trick and Luda have a long history, dating back to when the latter was a DJ in Atlanta.

“Luda’s my boy, no matter what,” Trick said. “Luda comes from radio. He knows how it is. He broke my records on the radio in Atlanta when no one else was playing me.”

While he feels an affinity for Dirty South rappers, Trick doesn’t have a whole lot of love for the out-of-towners. Diddy recently hosted the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards in the city, and even Philly native Will Smith has released a song called “Miami.”

“Miami hip-hop is full of New York and California rappers talking about Miami,” Trick said. “But they got to remember, this is my city.”

He’s got his own crew, the Dunk Ryders, named after the type of cars (nicknamed “dunks”) he favors. Trick’s got a label by the same name. They’re set to come out with a mix CD soon and an album by year’s end, he said.

He said 1970s Chevies are the way to roll, and don’t look for overlarge rims or other hip-hop clich