Latest Release
- 16 AUG 2024
- 1 Song
- Thank Me Later · 2010
- FutureSex/LoveSounds (Deluxe Edition) · 2006
- Paper Trail (Deluxe Version) · 2008
- Paperwork (Deluxe Version) · 2014
- Paper Trail · 2008
- Kiss Downloads: Urban Digital Selection · 2004
- Upper Echelon (feat. T.I. & 2 Chainz) - Single · 2013
- TESTING · 2018
- Paper Trail · 2008
- Paperwork (Deluxe Version) · 2014
Essential Albums
- Despite staring at a stint in prison as he awaited trial for weapons and possession charges, T.I. was able to find new creative depths on Paper Trail. His pop-leaning hip-hop anthems have rarely had as much crossover appeal they do here, whether it’s the infectiously chantable “Whatever You Like” or the Rihanna-assisted hands-in-the-air blockbuster “Live Your Life”. Other numbers offer more violent tales of crime and brutality, like the chest-beating street number “Every Chance I Get”.
- When Pharrell called T.I. “the JAY-Z of the South” in 2001, it virtually had the weight of a player like LeBron James being hyped before hitting the NBA. Being compared to a GOAT rapper by an equally GOATed producer comes with lofty standards—and after his debut I’m Serious failed to make a dent, they seemed insurmountable. But the rapper born Clifford Harris’ 2003 sophomore album Trap Muzik began to make good on those comparisons: He had Hov’s unwavering sense of cool; a tight, commanding delivery with slick wordplay; and a similar ability to unpack dimensions of humanity with street life as the motif. But unlike Jay, T.I. was faced with a different hurdle: translating “the trap”, the South’s metaphorical description of the world of drug dealing, to an audience that hadn’t understood it yet. While the question of who took the phrase mainstream has been contended (T.I. himself attempted to bring some legitimate documentation with his Trap Music Museum, a brick-and-mortar disambiguation of the genre which opened in Atlanta in 2018), Trap Muzik showcased a wide dynamic of experiences while maintaining a common foundation. “Doin’ My Job” defends the dusk-till-dawn dedication of dope dealers against demonisation, while the self-proclaimed dope-boy anthem “24’s” is as much of a street life credo as The LOX’s “Money, Power & Respect”. “Look What I Got” and “Let’s Get Away” enjoy the spoils of hustling, and album closer “Long Live Da Game” shows the deadly consequences with cinematic flair. “T.I. Vs. T.I.P.” seeks balance between street credibility and a celebrity with everything to lose. Trap Muzik isn’t just a vehicle to praise drug-dealing, but a space to weigh out its highs and lows. “We can't help it ’cause it is like this/We don't like it no more than you that we live like this,” he laments. T.I. tells all of these stories while leaning into his distinctive Southern drawl and enlisting the likes of DJ Toomp and San “Chez” Holmes to build bouncy, bassy productions that were equally distinctive to Atlanta. In the years that followed, T.I. became one of the most consistent artists that rap had to offer, below the Mason-Dixon or otherwise, and trap grew to be identified more as a catch-all description of a sound than as a topical category of lyrics. But his contributions to the genre are way bigger than one museum can hold.
- 2024
- 2023
- 2022
- 2022
- 2022
Artist Playlists
- All hail the King of the South.
- Jucee Froot
- Soulja Boy Tell 'Em
More To Hear
- T.I. shares a playlist centering around Black unity.
- The artist shares a playlist centering around Black unity.
- The artist runs through his album 'The L.I.B.R.A.'
- Live from Houston, Texas with Lowkey, Austin Millz, and Bun B.
- New music from Lil Baby & Gunna, Ella Mai, Sheck Wes, and more.
- The Atlanta's MC's "The Amazing Mr. Fu*k Up" is World Record.
More To See
- 22:03
- 12:50
About T.I.
Spirited arguments about the originator of trap music may never come to a consensus, but there’s no disputing that T.I. was instrumental in taking the hip-hop subgenre, and Southern street rap, to unprecedented heights. Atlanta native Clifford Harris, born in 1980, was fittingly dubbed “the JAY-Z of the South” by Pharrell Williams upon the release of his debut album, 2001’s I’m Serious, on which T.I. recounts his time hustling, his smooth drawl and cool demeanor unshakable. And so began his tooling of the trap blueprint as he detailed grim street-survivalist tales with slick punchlines and earnest reflection over bass-heavy production, complete with 808 drums and stuttering hi-hats. It was the perfect soundtrack for the South’s beloved car culture. Tip’s follow-up, Trap Muzik, helped popularise the sound, and his next two albums, 2004’s Urban Legend and 2006’s King—with booming rap-along anthems like the aggressive “Asap” and woozy “What You Know”, respectively—established him as trap's spokesperson. By 2008, Paper Trail placed T.I. in the elite rap company of Kanye West, JAY-Z, Lil Wayne and M.I.A. on the speaker-rattling posse cut “Swagga Like Us”. And though Tip spent the next few years grappling with various legal troubles, he continued to release music, and his ventures into reality TV rebranded him as a family man and entrepreneur. He became one of rap’s most outspoken voices for social justice: his defiant, thumping 2016 EP, Us or Else: Letter to the System, was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2018, T.I. opened Atlanta's Trap Music Museum—an experiential creation made to emulate the trap houses (run-down residences) that inspired his career—to chronicle the city's hip-hop history. But it doesn’t take a trip to Georgia to see what the self-proclaimed King of the South has built.
- HOMETOWN
- Atlanta, GA, United States
- BORN
- 25 September 1980
- GENRE
- Hip-Hop/Rap