diff --git a/ddtrace/contrib/redis/util.py b/ddtrace/contrib/redis/util.py
index 01875b55e65..2454cb5e1d6 100644
--- a/ddtrace/contrib/redis/util.py
+++ b/ddtrace/contrib/redis/util.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 """
 Some utils used by the dogtrace redis integration
 """
+from ...compat import stringify
 from ...ext import redis as redisx, net
 
 VALUE_PLACEHOLDER = "?"
@@ -32,7 +33,7 @@ def format_command_args(args):
     formatted_args = []
     for arg in args:
         try:
-            command = unicode(arg)
+            command = stringify(arg)
             if len(command) > VALUE_MAX_LENGTH:
                 command = command[:VALUE_MAX_LENGTH] + VALUE_TOO_LONG_MARK
             if formatted_length + len(command) > COMMAND_MAX_LENGTH:
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index bca41ccc466..2f6e83a412a 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -3,13 +3,14 @@
 import os
 
 tests_require = [
-    'nose',
-    'flask',
     'blinker',
+    'cassandra-driver',
+    'django',
     'elasticsearch',
+    'flask',
+    'nose',
     'psycopg2',
-    'django',
-    'cassandra-driver',
+    'redis',
 ]
 
 version = __version__
diff --git a/tests/contrib/redis/test.py b/tests/contrib/redis/test.py
index b7911c06635..6561fea9111 100644
--- a/tests/contrib/redis/test.py
+++ b/tests/contrib/redis/test.py
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ def test_basic_class(self):
         eq_(span.name, 'redis.command')
         eq_(span.span_type, 'redis')
         eq_(span.error, 0)
-        eq_(span.meta, {'out.host': u'localhost', 'redis.command': u'GET', 'out.port': u'6379', 'redis.args_length': u'2', 'out.redis_db': u'0'})
+        eq_(span.meta, {'out.host': u'localhost', 'redis.raw_command': u'GET cheese', 'out.port': u'6379', 'redis.args_length': u'2', 'out.redis_db': u'0'})
         eq_(span.resource, 'GET cheese')
 
     def test_meta_override(self):
@@ -87,14 +87,17 @@ def test_basic_class_pipeline(self):
         eq_(span.get_tag('out.host'), 'localhost')
         ok_(float(span.get_tag('redis.pipeline_age')) > 0)
         eq_(span.get_tag('redis.pipeline_length'), '3')
-        eq_(span.get_tag('redis.command'), 'SET, RPUSH, HGETALL')
         eq_(span.get_tag('out.port'), '6379')
         eq_(span.resource, u'SET blah 32\nRPUSH foo éé\nHGETALL xxx')
+        eq_(span.get_tag('redis.raw_command'), u'SET blah 32\nRPUSH foo éé\nHGETALL xxx')
 
     def test_custom_class(self):
         class MyCustomRedis(redis.Redis):
             def execute_command(self, *args, **kwargs):
                 response = super(MyCustomRedis, self).execute_command(*args, **kwargs)
+                # py3 compat
+                if isinstance(response, bytes):
+                    response = response.decode('utf-8')
                 return 'YO%sYO' % response