They say that you can tell a man character not by how he acts in moments of triumph, but in moments of anguish. As Clifford "T.I." Harris' life goes, controversy is his best friend. Trials (no pun intended) and tribulations make or break a person. T.I. makes it loud and clear that 'hard takes a day and impossible takes a week' for him. In the midst of his most public hip hop beef known to date and a looming jail sentence on the horizon, that he is not fazed. He is actually enlightened and inspired simultaneously. The self proclaimed "King of the South" dethroned himself on his last effort, T.I. vs T.I.P. While it was an exceptional publicity stunt, the project overall lacked substance. While it consisted of many radio friendly songs, that effort did not exude the heart of a, king, if you will.
Fast forward to autumn 2007, T.I. was arrested the night of the B.E.T. Hip Hop Awards ( coincidence? NO) for possession of illegal firearms...not just any firearms...machine guns....WITH SILENCERS! Oh, and did I mention that he is a 3 time felon? It looked like the King of South had officially been buried. Then he releases "No Matter What,"a song about overcoming any situation that you are faced with. From then on, song after song leaked and successfully continued to sway the audience towards his album.
Then you buy the album and the first song " I'm Illy" leaves your jaw dropped like Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl. He then proceeds to spill his heart song, after, song, after, song. At some point you wonder why he's still harping on his beef with fellow ATLien Shawty Lo, but its from his heart. What more could you ask for? Also, he revealed that for this album, he started writing down his lyrics (take a hint Dwayne Carter!) which gave him a chance to really reflect on the message that he wanted to convey since he has become a voice for stopping violence. In every cloud is a silver lining, well in this case, a platinum plaque... We'll see you when you get out T.I....that is, if you EVER do go to jail.
Until Next time..-Find your swank. Think insane. Be urbane.
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