S. Samuel
Rapper/actor T.I. speaks on his loyalty to hip-hop in his upcoming cover feature of Upscale magazine.
Based on excerpts taken from his interview, T.I. also opens up about his future in rap.
“I know I still have the ability to do [hip-hop] but I don’t know if I have as much passion to do it as I once did… I might find that I’m more effective in another capacity, but I won’t know if I don’t ever try. I have other talents and abilities that I may not be paying any attention to because I have this first one that I’m very fond of and I’ve grown attached to… As an artist I still would like to be better, but as an artist, I think T.I. has had a stellar career already…If I say I’m gonna ride with you, I’m gonna ride with you. That’s personally, professionally. So even if I know that you might not be all what everyone else thinks you’re cracked up to be, I’m still gonna ride it out with you. It does get tiresome and it does get gruesome at time, but I don’t know no other way to be.” (Hip Hop N More)
In addition to working on his upcoming King Uncaged album, T.I. recently talked about his new movie Takers debuting at number one at the box office last weekend.
“It was so tight, they kinda misinformed people prematurely and gave out the wrong information,” Tip said about the initial numbers. “But officially, as it stands right now, ‘Takers’ is the #1 movie in the country, contrary to popular belief. In my heart, I felt it would be.” (MTV)
The rapper also talked about delaying his new album to prepare for his movie’s release.
“I pushed the album back so I can completely focus my attention to the rollout and release of this film Takers,” he said. “I feel it wouldn’t be fair to the film or the album if I was splitting my attention span amongst the two, so I hit pause on the album to completely focus my attention to rolling out this here film. And once we prayerfully debut No. 1–25-plus, 20-plus million–then after those bottles have been popped and that celebration [is] underway, I will completely resubmerge myself back into the music, fully on album mode.” (Rap-Up)
Recently, T.I. said he could not see himself rapping after reaching middle age like Jay-Z.
“I’m not going to be the 40-year-old rapper. I would not,” Tip told CNN in a recent interview. “That’s Jay. He’s doing it very well. Hats off, but I just don’t see that for me…If I had the option to [be] Jay-Z [or] Will Smith, I think I’d go with Will. I’m a Jay-Z fan. I have a lot of admiration and respect for Jay and his legacy. But I feel like Will, he gets to spend more time with his family. He gets to be home more and actually raise his kids. I feel like he has more of a home life…and the money don’t hurt. Twenty million dollars a flick ain’t bad.” (CNN)
Check out a recent T.I. interview down below:
