T.I. Harris is the king of the South. The Atlanta native owns restaurants, is a formative voice within the trap music movement, a reality star and an actor. Nevertheless it all began in grade school when T.I., then an antsy and “mischievous” 9-year-old, began dropping bars.
“I start rapping like in second, third grade, just writing raps to challenge myself,” he told me on this week’s “Renaissance Man.” The reality is, he was one in every of those kids who would finish his work early and be a disruption out of boredom. Despite his good grades, he also wanted to slot in with the troublemakers, so he leaned into it.
“My uncle told me if I got in trouble again, that he would go kick my ass,” T.I. said. “So I knew after I finished my work, I needed to occupy my time. That made me challenge myself to jot down a rap … And I did it. I kicked it on the cafeteria table. Everybody went crazy. Didn’t imagine I wrote it. Said, ‘Well, do one other.’ So overnight I’d write one other rap, you recognize, and do it again. So then I did it again on the playground, nevertheless it went crazy. And that’s after I found that that is my thing.”
One other Atlanta product made him realize he could make an impact at any age.
“I actually thought I needed to like be a grown-up before I pursued [music]. I didn’t understand until Kris Kross got here that I could do that now,” he told me in a wide-ranging conversation that touched on his latest thriller, “Fear,” his foray into stand-up comedy, why he doesn’t wade into politics and who really rules the roost in his house. Spoiler alert — it’s his wife, Tiny.
Coming up, he idolized LL Cool J, N.W.A. and Jay-Z, and now that he’s an actor as well, he has taken cues from other rappers-turned-thespians, like Ice-T, Will Smith, Tupac and Ice Cube.
T.I. may be very much an innovator within the Atlanta sound. Although he wasn’t the primary rapper to come back out of that Southern capital, he did coin the term “trap music.”
“Everybody was affected by the war on drugs,” the rapper said. “We’re all refugees. Everybody was impacted by the crack era,” he said. “I don’t care whether you sold it, you knew any individual who smoked it, whether your daddy went to jail for selling it. It don’t matter … Everyone was impacted. Subsequently, trap music got here out. It’s philosophy set to music a couple of period in time where quite a lot of people were affected and quite a lot of people share similar experiences.”
His influence is felt on his home city in additional ways than one. He began the Trap Music Museum and the Trap City Café, which he said has an incredible brunch.
“We call it Vibe Emporium,” he said of the place, which has games, karaoke and comedy, something he’s now trying out.
“I wouldn’t necessarily call it breaking into the industry. Pleased to be here … I consider myself a student,” he said of the art.
He very much is a pacesetter — but he’s politically averse.
“It’s necessary for me to have a connection to the community. It’s necessary for me to fill the gap, find ways to be of service to the community. Politics? Yeah, no. I need to support any individual with a real interest to assist the community. I ain’t really into politics like that. I’m into it when it’s any individual that I feel that the community can trust, that I can get behind … Politics is so … flimsy. You recognize what I mean? And [there’s] not quite a lot of sincerity in it.”
He’s making a sincere effort on the box office this weekend when “Fear” hits theaters. The movie, a psychological thriller a couple of weekend vacation that turns sinister, is directed by Deon Taylor and stars Joseph Sikora and T.I., who can be a producer. They began filming it during COVID when many of the industry had gone dark.
“We form of trusted the method, you recognize. Talking about fear — I actually have a fear of losing my money,” he said with amusing. His other fears?
“My biggest fear will not be with the ability to be there for the folks that rely on me once they need me,” he answered earnestly.
But back to his checking account. I needed to ask if he had any regrets over his early, more, ahem, frivolous purchases.
“There’s so many,” he told me.
“I overpaid for a penthouse, simply because I wanted it, and didn’t get the cash that I could get out of it because I just had [to have it] it right then,” he admitted. “I overpaid for a mansion before.” And on his twenty fifth birthday, he did probably the most extravagant thing.
“I purchased an Aston Martin and a McLaren on the identical day — money,” he said. “I’ve gone and purchased charms and chains for all my partners. I purchased chains for individuals who didn’t even wear jewelry.”
“Resulting from the grace of God, I actually have been capable of learn from my mistakes,” he said. “And my investments have overwhelmed my negative purchases. And that’s how I can still stay here and live to spend one other day.”
Detroit native Jalen Rose is a member of the University of Michigan’s iconoclastic Fab Five, who shook up the school hoops world within the early ’90s. He played 13 seasons within the NBA before transitioning right into a media personality. Rose is an analyst for “NBA Countdown” and “Get Up,” and co-host of “Jalen & Jacoby.” He executive-produced “The Fab Five” for ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, is the writer of the best-selling book “Got To Give the People What They Want,” a fashion tastemaker and co-founded the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, a public charter school in his hometown.
