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After receiving many emails from concerned/confused viewers, I'd like to take a moment and say that THA-KING.COM HASN'T CLOSED OR PLANNED ON CLOSING.
The website has not been updated in about a month, and I'd like to provide a reason for that as well. As stated in previous important site updates, I've been busy in college, preparing and taking finals, and moving into a new apartment. A lot has been happening in my life over the last month that I didn't see coming. Won't go into detail but I can say that everything is getting better and my daily life is almost back to normal.
I am proud to brag that I finished my first year in college with a great GPA, and successfully moved into my own apartment.
T.I. has officially began his 366-day stint in prison in Arkansas. I got a lot of emails of people that were down the street amongst other fans and media. According to GOT, "T.I. should be out of prison in about 10 months where he will then begin serving 2 more months on house arrest."
As you know T.I. also performed last Sunday at the Philips Arena in ATL. This was his last performance before entering prison. The show was SOLD OUT!
A lot of people sent me emails questioning the updates and site changes I promised. A lot is going on behind the scenes. You won't get to physically see everything I'm doing with the site. I'm in the process of switching hosts, and integrating new tools to help me maintain the site. The gallery will also be made available again really soon. Once everything is switched over and I tweak a few things, I will open it.
For the first time, I am looking for 2-3 people to help me with things around the site. I am looking for 1 or 2 people to upload new photos into the gallery. I'm also looking for one person to update the site with new music from T.I. If anyone is interested, send me a email with your Name, Age, experience, facebook/myspace link, and whatever else you deem necessary for me to know. to ThaKingcom@gmail.com. All jobs will be explained more thoroughly through email.
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Tha-King.com is definitely not closing everyone, and will remain T.I.'s number one fan site. Other sites took advantage of us not updating but we're coming back! All questions, comments/responses can be sent to me to ThaKingcom@gmail.com. Remember to follow my personal updates on TWITTER!!.
Good news. Finals are finally over for me. It's been a very hectic two weeks! I'm glad this first year in college has finally came to an end. Looking forward to this SUMMER! I have a lot going on. This weekend and the beginning of next week, I'll be moving into my new apartment. This crazy life of mine should return back to normal by Wednesday. Regular updates will resume then.
Make sure you are following me on Twitter. Once you follow me send me a reply telling me you're a reader!
BTW, I know a lot of you have emailed me. I will be taking the time to go through them again and reply to the ones I need to. Be patient.
As most of you know, T.I.'s Road To Redemption: The Reckoning failed to air last week at its scheduled time. The show was held off the air due to a digital conversion error with the specific episode.
The premiere of "T.I.'s Road To Redemption: The Reckoning" has been rescheduled for TONIGHT Tuesday, April 7, at 9 p.m. Don't miss it!
Just like last week, I asked all the readers to send in what they thought about the episode and also their opinion on this whole entire series. Positive feedback will be displayed in a separate update here on the site. Email your feedback to ThaKingCom@gmail.com.
Southern heavyweights join forces with Rick Ross and Shawty Lo for the No1 in the South Got Swagga Like Us show.
MTVNEWS: The current kings of Atlanta, T.I., Young Jeezy and Ludacris, all gathered together on stage for the first time on Sunday at Philips Arena.
Young Jeezy headlined the No1 in the South Got Swagga Like Us concert and surprised the house when he brought out his onetime rivals to join him.
Tip and Luda have long put their feud behind them and collaborated on each other's most recent albums. But beyond one club performance in the past, the rappers haven't appeared much onstage together — but the Snowman changed all of that.
Luda tipped off fans to the momentous occasion beforehand through his Twitter feed, teasing, "Big show in Atlanta today at Philips Arena! If you don't have your tix you're about to miss out! Surprises galore."
Later, he joined T.I. onstage for "On Top of the World," their song from Tip's album.
Though the pair's previous feelings for each other were well documented, Luda downplayed talk of an actual beef.
"It was never what you would consider 'beef,' " Luda told MTV News in September after the pair buried the hatchet. "Beef to me is when you talking about somebody's family and they wanna punch the sh-- out of your ass. Between me and him, it's the original root of hip-hop. Little lines on wax. He and my manager had a disagreement that led to some stuff, but that was between two grown men, of course. Even that ... that sh-- lasted all of 30 seconds. It wasn't what people made it out to be. ... We would see each other all the time in Atlanta. It was really our lives, your entertainment."
Shortly after Tip and Luda's first record hit the streets last summer, the Disturbing Tha Peace boss joked there was no bigger moment in hip-hop than the former foes spitting on the same track. Prior to them swapping records for their latest albums, the only other time they appeared on a song together was the street version of Young Buck's "Stomp," where they took lyrical swipes at each other. But those times are long gone and A-town cheered on the unity in the building.
The trio of Jeezy, Luda and Tip basked in the crowd adoration and Luda then introduced the audience to the newest member of his DTP crew, former BME affiliate Lil Scrappy.
"Just got off stage at Philips Arena in ATL," Luda Tweeted after the show. "If you missed it, myself, T.I., and Jeezy all on stage together for the first time. Lil Scrappy is DTP!"
Also billed as part of the show were Rick Ross and Shawty Lo.
Show did not air Tuesday due to technical problems; new premiere date is April 7 at 9 p.m. on MTV.
MTV.COM: If you are like MTV.com user Vantinette, you spent your Tuesday night tuned to MTV, waiting for the premiere of "T.I.'s Road To Redemption: The Reckoning," the rapper's exclusive post-sentencing interview with MTV News' Sway Calloway.
Like Vantinette, you were probably also confused — and a bit angry — when, at 9 p.m., the show didn't air as scheduled and a repeat of the previous week's episode of "Redemption" was in its place.
(Note: The premiere of "T.I.'s Road To Redemption: The Reckoning" has been rescheduled for Tuesday, April 7, at 9 p.m. on MTV.)
"I am so mad," Vantinette wrote on MTV.com. "I was waiting to see the show and it didn't air in D.C. We took off work that night to make sure we could see the last of it."
We got many comments just like that, from users wondering just what the heck happened to the show: Did it disappear due to some colossal programming error? Was it an early April Fools' Day prank? A natural disaster? Well, no. But the explanation is just about that complicated.
"Basically, as I understand it, it's a kind of screw-up that's never happened before," Michael Hirschorn, an executive producer of "Road to Redemption," told MTV News on Wednesday (April 1). "The materials for show were collected for final assembly, everything was good and signed-off, and then the media became corrupted. It was sort of like having a file on a home computer, and the computer screws it up — only much bigger than that."
To get a little more in-depth, while still trying to explain things in words we can all understand, here's what happened: According to Hirschorn, the interview with T.I. and Sway, along with a segment in which T.I. reunites with the kids he had mentored during this season of "Road," was filmed last weekend in Atlanta (hours after the rapper was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for felony weapons charges), and was taken to an editing facility on Sunday to be cut into "Reckoning."
The editing process was completed on Tuesday afternoon, at which point the Atlanta facility gave Hirschorn the news that the show was ready to be transferred from the digital-editing program onto an actual tape. Ideally, that tape would then be placed in a playback deck and the show would be sent via satellite to the Network Operations Center in New York, which stores the show digitally until it is sent to your cable channel for live broadcast. Only that didn't happen with "Reckoning."
According to Hirschorn, some time after 7 p.m. on Tuesday, it became apparent that something had gone wrong with the editing software (or, the file containing the show itself), meaning that the editing facility in Atlanta couldn't transfer the show to tape. The facility spent the next hour re-booting the software and attempting to transfer the show to tape once again. And once again, there were problems.
Shortly before 8 p.m. — 60 minutes before the show was scheduled to broadcast — it became clear that the show wasn't going to be able to be sent to the Network Operations Center via tape, so Hirschorn and the editing facility began to think of other ways of getting the show on-air. In super-tight instances, the show can be fed live from the facility to the N.O.C. (meaning it would basically be broadcast live from a tape deck in Atlanta to your TV), only, since the show was unable to be taken off the editing software, this also wasn't an option.
So, with less than an hour until "Reckoning" was scheduled to air, and with technicians in Atlanta working furiously to get the show off the computers, it became clear that something was going to have to give. MTV Programming made the decision to push the broadcast back until 11 p.m., with the hopes that the issues would be cleared up. Of course, this was all news to T.I., who found out just as he was sitting down in his Atlanta home to watch the special.
"I wasn't able to speak to Tip until after 10 p.m.," Hirschorn said. "By the time I spoke to him, he was still clearly disappointed but philosophical about the whole thing."
Of course, "Reckoning" didn't make the 11 p.m. airing, either. And according to Hirschorn, technicians never were able to extract the material from the computer — "They worked until 2:30 a.m. trying to make it happen," he said.
"I'm obviously upset and feel terrible that we let the viewers down," Hirschorn said. "It's a fantastic show and the interview is remarkable ... it's rare that you ever see a public figure that honest and that up-front, and it was meant to be the culmination of a powerful series that we and Tip were so proud of."
MC plans to spend time with family before entering prison.
MTV.COM: When T.I. will turn himself in to begin his one-year-and-one-day sentence and where he'll serve it are up in the air at the moment. But what Tip will be doing until then is certain.
"I'd like to spend time with my family," the rapper told MTV News' Sway during "T.I.'s Road to Redemption: The Reckoning."
"I work so much, so I'd just like the time to kick it with them," he added. "The kids, the old lady, my cousins, my brother, just with my family. Maybe take a vacation, maybe something for Mother's Day. I don't know, man. I might be able to make one more birthday party."
Prior to his sentencing, T.I. kept busy promoting his latest LP, Paper Trail, and making a number of community-service appearances as part of his plea deal. In lieu of a longer jail sentence, Tip's lawyers worked out a deal where the rapper had to complete 1,500 hours of community service, in addition to paying a $100,000 fine and completing 365 days of home confinement. So far, T.I.'s completed 1,030 hours of his service and will be required to finish the rest after his term in prison.
In previous interviews, T.I. has said he doesn't want his children to visit him in jail; he also said his friends and artists on his Grand Hustle label don't have to visit him either. He said he'll quietly strategize his comeback while incarcerated.
But there's still the matter of helping his family deal with his absence. He's the sole provider for his brood and he asked the judge to place him in a federal confinement near Atlanta, if possible, during his sentencing. According to Tip, his family is trying to cope with his impending prison bid.
"Well, you know we still got more work to do," he explained. "At the end of the day I'm not going to be gone long enough to have any long-lasting effects. Of course, the initial emotion will be one of somber grief. But by the time they get over it, I'll be getting home. Compared to how bad it could have been, I think I made out all right."
Don't miss "T.I.'s Road to Redemption: The Reckoning," airing tonight at 9 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.
Check out my favorite clip from the last show. Thanks My-lan!
"T.I.'s Road to Redemption" -- TI & Tameka Date Night
After the show, email your thoughts/comments on the final episode to ThaKingCom@gmail.com. I love reading your comments and I do my best to forward them to T.I.'s camp. All positive comments sent in will be posted on the site! So, watch the show and send them in!
'I ain't never seen nobody retire from selling crack,' he says of his past mistakes.
MTV.COM: ATLANTA — T.I. 's 2007 arrest for attempting to buy illegal firearms led many observers to believe the rapper's career was finished and he'd be spending a long stretch in prison. The rapper had previously done jail stints for drug-related offenses.
So how did an exemplary student, as Tip said he was, turn to a fast life of crime?
"I think for me, it was independence. It was about independence. It was about being a provider. It was me and my mom at that point, and from what I saw of my uncles and what I saw of my pops, they were providers," T.I. told MTV News on Saturday during his interview that will air Tuesday night (March 31) on MTV's "Road to Redemption: The Reckoning." "They provided for their family and other people's families. They were the ones that other people came to when they didn't know what they were going to do and how they were going to do it. Where there was no way, my uncles and my pops made a way, and that's what I saw."
For Tip, he said those figures became his examples. By the time he hit his teens, he moved to place himself in that provider position. He'd receive final-notice bills from his mother, and he said it was then his responsibility to make sure their lives remained steady. So he turned to selling crack.
The rapper said he masked his illegal activity with a more modest, innocent front: selling candy.
"My mom never knew how I was getting it done, she just knew I was getting it done," Tip recalled. "I had a few fronts too, man. I used to sell candy. I used to go to the warehouse and buy a bunch of candy, get a book bag full of candy, and off it. I pretended to my mom for a long time that that's how I was getting the money."
All was well, according to Tip — until his mother found "a quarter ounce of crack in my sock." Then, as T.I. put it, "She kind of put two and two together."
Now, Tip said, he recognizes there's a lot more legal money to be made than any funds from illegal activities.
Tip cited a theory of his that if you track two 15-year-old kids for 10 years, one who starts out working at a fast-food restaurant and one that begins selling drugs on the street, eventually the restaurant worker — while getting an education — will out-earn the drug dealer. T.I. said if you factor in arrests, jail time and possible death, there's no question that the drug dealer will lose the battle, even if he starts off making more money.
"You got to realize that this is a marathon," he said. "It ain't about who get it first, it about who has it last. I ain't never seen nobody retire from selling crack. Never."
He paused for a second, laughed, then finished: "I've never seen no 401K from no cocaine dealing."
Don't miss "T.I.'s Road to Redemption: The Reckoning," airing tonight at 9 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.
Rapper says his ability to relate to at-risk youth helped reduced his prison sentence.
MTV.COM: ATLANTA — The sentencing judge called it "experimental." The U.S. attorney who helped broker the arrangement called it "unique." And T.I. himself acknowledged that his plea deal — which reduced a potential 10-year prison term into community service and, more than likely, less than a year's worth of jail time — was "an opportunity."
T.I. wasn't the recipient of the plea deal because he snitched, he's often said. Nor did he get the benefit of the doubt from the legal system because he's rich. Tip landed his plea deal due to a combination of his fame, his familiar troubled past and his ability to recount his transformation from trap star to rap star as a means of influencing at-risk youth.
"If they would have gave Joe Blow, who got arrested with guns the next day or the next week — if [the court] would have gave him my deal, could he have turned around and given as much back to the community as I have? No he couldn't," T.I. told MTV News' Sway during their conversation for "Road to Redemption: The Reckoning," which airs Tuesday on MTV.
"I showed I was worthy of this and this was something possible," Tip continued. "So they decided the opportunity was worth the chance."
The rapper's lawyer has said his client has made upwards of 260 public appearances in the past year, talking to schools, youth groups and churches. T.I. speaks about his mistakes during these appearances, owning up to his behavior and aiming to keep kids on the right path. In his sit-down with Sway, Tip explained that he understands one conversation with children may not be enough to deter them. But he's staying in touch with those he can. The rapper eventually hopes the positive interventions — from "Road to Redemption" and his public appearances — will be a strong enough alternative to an at-risk teen's turbulent influences.
"I try to get eye-level with these kids," T.I. told MTV News, referencing his troubled history. "The only thing I have that they don't have is the experience of making it through."
Tip added that he believes he's helped to give some of the kids he visits "a conscience," even if takes some longer than others to realize it.
"It's like with cigarette smokers," he said. "Not everyone can go cold turkey. Some go from two packs a day to one pack a day to the point where they don't buy cigarettes anymore, they just bum them, and then they quit."
At his sentencing on Friday, Tip's legal team said although there may not be any hard numbers to confirm the rapper's influence, they believe his work with kids to be exemplary. One of T.I.'s attorneys read a letter from the probation officer of one of the "Road to Redemption" kids, Anthony, thanking Tip for his work and hoping he continues his outreach after his prison stay.
MC tells MTV News' Sway this will be the last time he'll discuss sentence before going to prison.
MTV.COM: ATLANTA — T.I. opened his life up to the "Road to Redemption" cameras, allohwing them to follow him through highs, lows and everything in between. But now that he's been sentenced and is set to report to jail within the next 60 days, the rapper said it may be time for him to hush up about his ordeal. As he put it, he's taking a "vacation" of sorts.
"This is probably the last time I speak about this," Tip told MTV News' Sway on Saturday, just one day after his fail was sealed in a Georgia federal courthouse. "Don't ask me no more questions. Finito." The exclusive interview, scheduled to air Tuesday on MTV, will be the first the wordsmith has given since a district judge officially sentenced him to one year and one day in prison. The sit-down will also be the only time Tip speaks to a media outlet about his case prior to entering prison.
The conversation touched on a series of topics, including his final thoughts as he stood before the judge, his appearance in court and his plans to spend time with his family for the next few weeks -- out of the spotlight.
"I'm always working," T.I. said. So now he hopes to take a break from his career and concentrate on his loved ones. He explained that some of his family members are still trying to come to grips with his impending departure, but "by the time they get over it, I'll be home," T.I. said with a small laugh.
The interview, billed as "T.I.'s Road to Redemption: The Reckoning," wasn't all jokes, however. Although the rapper expressed pride in owning up to his mistakes in court, he also said he felt embarrassed as the kids from the show watched him stand before the judge. He was ashamed that he hadn't learned his lesson until later in life. Ultimately, though, T.I. said he felt "relieved" to close the dark chapter of his life that started on the eve of the 2007 BET Hip-Hop Awards, when he was busted for illegally attempting to purchase firearms. Tip has said in interviews and in his lyrics that he tried to buy the guns as a means to protect himself in the wake of the 2006 shooting death of his close friend and assistant, Philant Johnson.
T.I. said he became more mild-mannered, patient and thoughtful in the time following his arrest, which he described in court on Friday as "the most insightful period of my life."
"I showed what you should do [when you make a mistake]," he told Sway. "If you did it, you did it. Don't try to pass the buck on to someone else."
Letter read in court written by officer in charge of former gang member Anthony.
MTV.COM: ATLANTA — Like any parent or teacher,T.I. probably couldn't name which one of the "Road to Redemption" kids is his favorite.
Undoubtedly, though, one of the most successful youth interventions T.I. helped lead was the one in chapter 3, titled "Your Environment Does Not Define You." Anthony, a California teenager, was a member of the Crips gang and a fledgling chef. In the episode, Tip called the case "far more extreme" than the previous interventions, because Anthony's behavior was influenced by previous generations of family members who were also gangbangers.
Anthony eventually turned his life around following his introduction to Tip. He's now tending to his pregnant girlfriend and working for a notable chef. His probation officer, Kimberly McKinney, has noticed the impact T.I. has had on Anthony.
The change has been so significant, in fact, that she wrote a letter to T.I. that was read in the courtroom by the rapper's lawyer on Friday. Tip didn't know about the gesture, as McKinney mailed the note directly to his lawyer. The first time T.I. actually heard the letter was during his sentencing.
"I am the probation officer of Anthony, and he is an awesome young man with a brighter future because you have made a tremendous impact on his life," the letter, obtained by MTV News, reads. "For that I thank you, and for the youth without a voice I also speak for them, thank you. Your program was very enlightening and once you started tuning in you could not tune out. My entire caseload, the youth at my church and in my community, friends and family watched faithfully. If I had to select two words that I heard most often describing the program, it would be: life changing."
McKinney noted that "Road to Redemption" helped encourage at-risk youth to pull their lives together and sparked hope in kids committed to changing their behavior. The Harbor City, California, probation officer wrote that she hoped Tip would continue his work. She noted that to help someone change their life, a person must first start with oneself, and "it is obvious that [T.I.'s] change has come."
'We're gonna try to do as much as we can to continue your positive path,' Tip tells the kids over breakfast.
MTV.COM: ATLANTA — T.I. has been playing catch-up with his "Road to Redemption" kids since Thursday evening, when a few of them were flown into Atlanta, including Pee Wee, Anthony, Cynthia and Donald. Trey, another of the show's featured kids, lives in Georgia and drove to Atlanta.
After T.I.'s sentencing Friday morning, the rapper treated the kids to breakfast at the Social House, where he chatted them up.
"How's things going with that teacher of yours?" Tip asked Cynthia, who rolled her eyes in response.
Tip split his time in the restaurant between the kids and a table with his family. His mood was more than upbeat after learning his plea deal had been honored by the judge. He was jovial with the kids, while remaining stern at the same time.
"I hope you all enjoy your time down here," said T.I., who introduced all the kids to his lawyer, seated next to him. "We're gonna try to do as much as we can to continue your positive path."
Later, in a chat with Pee Wee, Tip brought up Mario, who appeared in episode eight.
"I heard he was arrested for attempted murder," T.I. said. The comment elicited a strong reaction from Pee Wee, who said he knew something bad was going to happen with Mario. Mario drew one of Tip's most drastic interventions in the series, with the rapper bringing the troubled teen into an ambulance to speak with a paramedic about the damages bullet wounds do to humans and confronted him with another person whose life had been tragically altered after being shot.
The kids all reflected on Tip's effect on their lives and thanked him profusely. The rapper also scheduled a shopping trip for the bunch to reward their dedication following their interventions. And on Friday night, the kids went to the Atlanta Hawks basketball game against defending champions the Boston Celtics.
On Saturday (March 28), Tip will sit down with the kids to discuss the ramifications of his sentencing, what it means for him and what they should take away from his lesson.
'I know when he gets out he's gonna keep turning around his life,' one kid says.
MTV.COM: ATLANTA — Throughout T.I.'s court hearing on Friday morning (March 27), a number of supporters reiterated that the rapper's work with at-risk youth was a reason to show him mercy in his sentencing.
T.I.'s lawyer specifically cited his client's 262 public appearances the past 12 months at various schools, youth groups and churches.
Perhaps no group could better explain the benefits of T.I.'s mentorship than the group of kids he helped on the eight episodes of his show "T.I.'s Road to Redemption."
"It was surprising when he showed up," Donald, who appeared in episode seven, told MTV News about meeting Tip. "It's like, 'T.I.'s in my house right now.' But on the other side of my mind, I'm thinking, 'He's here for a cause, and I did this, so that's why he's here.' And we had to get to work."
Donald and a few other participants were present at the courthouse when T.I.'s sentence became official. The group left with the rapper afterward to share breakfast with him, and later in the evening they're scheduled to attend the Atlanta Hawks basketball game versus the Boston Celtics. Tip is also set to deliver a gift to each of the kids for staying on their straight paths.
"I feel better now [as a person], 'cause a year ago I wasn't even going to school," episode eight's Cynthia said. "I didn't go all last year — I was getting locked up. But now I'm just focused. I'm staying in school, even though it's boring. But I have to do it, because I want to be something in life."
Trey, who appeared in the show's second episode, reflected on his family. His father was recently released from prison and he said together they're helping each other stay on the right path. He also explained how his behavior led to his younger cousins following his negative actions — but now he said it's his responsibility to reverse the course.
"After the show, [people] told me to keep going," Trey said. "At the rate I am [going], I'll be up there, successful [soon]."
The kids didn't seem too fazed by Tip's sentence. They all said his transgressions struck a chord with them because his experience mirrored theirs.
"He's a really cool person and I'm happy he got a good deal [after] what he did," Anthony, who was featured in episode three, said. "I don't think he should go to jail [at all], because he did his thing. But with a lot of guns ... there has to be a consequence. But I know when he gets out he's gonna keep turning around his life like he's been doing."
Anthony's probation officer wrote a letter that T.I.'s lawyer read in court. The letter expressed gratitude toward the rapper for engaging with the at-risk youth and addressed the change she's seen in him.
"What I had back then, I don't got today," Anthony said about his current prospects, which now include working alongside a chef. "And what I do today, I never did back then and wouldn't have thought to, 'cause I was too busy. But I feel a whole lot different. I feel purified. I feel clean and I'm not into my dirty ways anymore."
'I think they all represent different movements,' T.I. said of the next wave of Atlanta rappers.
MTV.COM: Atlanta may just be the hottest city in hip-hop right now. T.I., Young Jeezy and Ludacris all stand on top as kings of the game right now. Love him or hate him, ATL transplant Soulja Boy has already tapped into the young-listener market like no other, and his "Turn My Swag On" is probably the biggest rap record in the clubs right now. The veteran Gucci Mane is now out of jail and has the streets screaming for him. And let's not forget Andre 3000 — whenever he steps out of the creative hideout he's lounging in, a classic verse is a forgone conclusion.
And while other cities certainly have their share of heavyweights, Atlanta keeps turning out young talent who make themselves immediate heavy-hitters in local clubs and on the radio. Def Jam has just inked the trio F.L.Y., who are stirring up a dance movement with the song "Swag Surfin', " and T.I. is championing two of the city's brightest prospects: Yung L.A. and B.o.B.
"I think they all represent different movements," Tip told us recently about the next wave of Atlanta artists. "B.o.B from Yung L.A., they're light years away. ... I think that it's great that the city is still growing, that the movement is alive and well. It gives me great pleasure to be able to present so many of these acts and to be responsible for the cultivating of their careers."
Tip still will not confirm his work on Dr. Dre's forthcoming LP, despite leaked tracks.
MTV.COM: When T.I. takes a vow of silence, he apparently rides it out to the end. Tip has evidently made a pledge not to divulge any information about his reported collaborations with Dr. Dre for the Doc's forthcoming Detox LP — even though an inside source confirmed the information to MTV News, and tracks have leaked (one of which was labeled "I Am Hip-Hop (Detox)," with Tip referencing verses for Dre. Still, T.I. will not open up about his work on the album.
"I heard about that," Tip said nonchalantly about the Detox tracks leaking on Monday in the New York City borough of the Bronx, where he spoke to kids at a Boys & Girls Club.
As questioning about Detox continued, T.I. replied, "Did I really reference vocals for Dr. Dre? Did Dr. Dre confirm I referenced vocals for Dr. Dre? I cannot confirm or deny my involvement with the Detox project, but if I had the chance to work with the great Dr. Dre, it would be an honor and a privilege, and definitely be a pivotal moment and highlight of my career."
T.I. had previously told MTV News that "a little birdie" told him Detox will be "phenomenal."
Tip is scheduled to face a federal judge at the end of this month on March 27, where he will learn the full details of his prison sentence. Many of Tip's peers have been reaching out for guest verses from him before he has to go away.
"I'm trying to do as much as I can," he said. "I can't make it to everybody, but I'm gonna do as much as I can."
T.I. has also been at work on a new album, but doesn't have a release date as of yet.
"As far as my own personal project, I am working and recording," he explained. "I got 18, 19 new songs."
Posted on May 29 2009
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