By Simone Wilson
Hiatus Editor
The destined union of T.I. and the almighty Sun God has been a long time coming. While our immortal bird statue waited patiently over the century’s turn — seeing hip-hop headliners Cypress Hill, Ludacris, Busta Rhymes, Mos Def and Xzibit — the smooth Atlanta live wire slowly hammered away at his King-of-the-South throne; like a commoner sneaking his wily little way into nobility with only 10 crowd-pumping fingers and a charged vault of well-oiled rhymes to lift him, T.I. has never let slack his determined trek to the crown. And damned if I didn’t just see the faintest ruffle of a golden feather, because the reigning Southern chieftains are set to meet at last.
But our well-fed exotic captive came by his status easy — T.I. had to edge out the local competition in a more gradual struggle: with a barrage of superb mixtape responses to Lil’ Flip’s in-concert beef-spark; a career-mirroring quantitative trump of tricky elder talent Ludacris (though the pussyfootin’ “Runaway Love” video certainly helped move things along as well); an attentiveness to the public mainstream that Internet darling Lil’ Wayne forgot to maintain. And, in an almost ceremonious finale, Scarface — the wise, legendary founding father of Southern rap — officially passed on the title in an October 2006 phone skit from T.I.’s Down With the King (expertly piloted by only-man-for-the-mixtape DJ Drama). “I don’t wanna be no king of nothin’,” Scarface slugs to his eager protegee over crackling cell phone reception. “Nigga, you can have that shit,” he barely lets slip before a lifted Jay-Z beat drops and T.I. tears into a heated “99 problems, Lil’ Flip ain’t one” diss.
What this particular rapper/songwriter/actor understands is that there are still plenty of positions in the royal court to go around (and, judging by the bulk of paper raining down in those videos, plenty of pay too). Consequently, T.I. often serves as the solitary hub that unites them all: He works closely with the warm-burnin’ Texas boys of UGK, fellow Atlanta ’caine-slanger Young Jeezy and even global forces like Jay-Z (in fact, Pharrell went so far as to liken the two in their game domination). His modest stature doesn’t compromise any charismatic presence — topped by a cocky shaved-bald dome and squared-off jawline, permanently set in that dashing up-and-to-the-side tilt — and he jitters with a fascinating new-money royalty, hovering on stage with the electric pulse of a hummingbird and all Johnny Cash’s dressed-in-black regality. After all, he did spend a good nine months behind Fulton County Prison bars.
With three scatterbrained but satiating studio albums already under his belt, T.I. threw 2006 a fastball with the mind-blowing top-seller King, slathering effortless street-life wordplay atop a thick undergrowth of torrid thumpers from various scene-infiltrating producers, including Just Blaze, Pharrell and Swizz Beatz. He wrung a heavy heart with Jamie Foxx on velvety jam “Live in the Sky,” skidded through the dub-steps of “Stand Up Guy” and nodded off to the hi-hat with Pimp C on “I’m Straight.” But most of all, in the straight-up most exhilarating hip-hop moment of the year, King’s third track — the booming “What You Know” — lifted T.I. onto the synth-murmuring shoulders of then-unknown ATL beatsmith DJ Toomp, its deliberate slow roast winning instant fame and a gleaming hip-hop medal for America’s South.
As a tease for June’s slated fifth album T.I. vs. T.I.P. (the latter being his former title, because he ain’t got no competition but himself these days), an indulgent 120-minute, 32-track gluttonous feast of a mixtape has been thrown to us ravenous citizens below. Old, remixed and new tracks are heaped with contributors — as is the new single from DJ Khaled, where T.I. appears alongside Southern competition Lil’ Wayne — and sees him nonchalant in the security of King’s victorious aftermath, all battles owned and opponents sent home with their tails between their legs. Like all good kings, T.I. will let his guard down to bask in the biz’s flash and pomp, and it’s only a matter of time before he’s overthrown by the next eager knight — but the thrill of such rivalry is why he does what he does, and we love him for it. This Friday, Sun God meets T.I. in his prime, and we’re lucky to witness the well-earned peak of a plentiful career.
