S. Samuel
Hitmaker Swizz Beatz recently talked about working with T.I. on his upcoming King Uncaged album and said the Grand Hustle CEO is looking to out-do past hits like "Bring Em Out" and "Swing Ya Rag."
Working alongside the “King of the South,” Swizzy said they are now aiming to do bigger records.
“What we just did is bigger than those,” Swizz said about the two new records he produced for Tip. “It’s bigger than ‘Swing Ya Rag,’ it’s bigger than all of those. We’re growing as artists. That’s one of the things I wanted to focus on with Tip, was: ‘We did that already. We don’t need to compete with nobody. You up there.’ Everything we gotta do, we gotta stay leaders. That’s how we got to where we at now. He gave me his OK on that. Gave me the clear lane. And we’re gone. Trust me on that. The first joint, it’s nice. Crazy! The second joint is taking the world over. It’s a positive message, and I’ll let him explain the rest of the story, because he would be glad to. [It’s] very musical, but still with that swag in it.” (MTV)
Recently confirming possible collaborations with Eminem, Lady Gaga, Beatz and Timbaland, Tip has also described his post-prison album amongst Tupac Shakur‘s All Eyez On Me.
T.I. is setting the bar high for his post-prison album, King Uncaged, comparing it to Tupac’s 1996 classic All Eyez on Me, which was released months after ‘Pac got out of prison. “This is the most significant return from incarceration that the game has had since then,” T.I. says. “Just given the enormous success of that project, everyone’s expecting the same results. I just want to meet the expectations, if not surpass them.” (Rolling Stone)
After the album’s artwork leaked online featuring himself sitting next to a lion, Tip talked about its motivation.
“I’m known as ‘the King.’ Although it’s disputed by some, concurred by most, there ain’t no disputing that lion–that is what it is. So I went and told them, ‘Get me as close as you can to a lion.’ He had a trainer holding him on a chain. They took the chain out [in post-work]. It really went down. I wanted to pet him. I said, ‘Let me get hands on.’ They were like, ‘No. We could only let you do but so much.’ So I did as much as they would allow me to do…I figured we had to do some kind of slick and meaningful imagery to say the obvious without doing the obvious. I tried to flip it as much as I could. I wanted it to be a a busy city street. My original idea was to lock down Times Square and let me and the lion do the same thing right there, but we couldn’t quite pull that off; they said it had to be in controlled environment. They tried to a artsy kind of drawing. It looked good, but it didn’t serve my purpose–it was just a painting. I figured, if it got to be a controlled environment, we may as well just keep it all the way simple make it black and white, white background, me, him, cool chair.” (RESPECT Mag)
Initially slated for an August release, the rapper’s upcoming album is now projected to drop in early fall.
T.I.’s upcoming album – his first since his release from prison – King Uncaged, has been pushed back to September 28. Revealed on Amazon.com, the new release date is the latest example of a Hip Hop artist whose album has has dropped later than expected – a laundry list that includes the likes of Drake, Game, Diddy, Rhymefest and N.E.R.D. (Hip Hop DX)
Check out a recent T.I. interview below:
