S. Samuel
The delay behind T.I.'s upcoming King Uncaged album has been explained by hitmaker Just Blaze who believes the rapper's extensive selection of tracks has slowed matters down.
Blaze believes T.I. is still deciphering what records are worthy to make the final cut.
“The crazy thing about Tip is that when he got out of jail he went into the studio and literally recorded 70 songs in a matter of months,” Just told Eric and Jeff Rosenthal and Jensen Carp during an appearance on their Hypemen podcast. “We had a conversation where he was like, ‘Yo, I’ve rapped and said so much, I’m trying to figure out which way to move next.'” Just contrasted T.I.’s recording process to Jay-Z‘s method during The Blueprint, which he had a hand in producing. “[T.I.] has such a wide range of really good street records, introspective records and a couple of smash singles. But when you’ve got 20 of each type, it’s hard to pick which ones to run with.” (Hip Hop DX)
Hitmaker Pharrell Williams also recently said T.I.’s delay was a matter of song selection.
“He’s got songs out there right now that are singles, but, you know, there are pressures in the world, certain things you can’t necessarily control,” Pharrell said about T.I. “But his body of work … he’s got a crazy album. I saw, like, 60 records, and almost every record that he played me was really incredible. Then there was the more poppier side of things, where the label kinda puts the gun to your head ’cause they gotta pay their bills…Please trust, T.I.’s album is incredible, and he’s an amazing talent, and it’s been a while since we got together…” (MTV)
Initially slated to drop last month, Tip said he had to put the album on hold while promoting his new film, Takers.
“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)
In addition to a release date, T.I. is scheduled for a federal court hearing next week.
Rapper T.I. is headed back to federal court in Atlanta next week to explain why his probation shouldn’t be revoked after his recent arrest in Los Angeles. U.S. District Judge Charles Pannell Jr. has set the hearing for 2 p.m. on Oct. 15 for T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris. The same judge sentenced Harris for firearms violations. (Associated Press)
Check out a recent T.I. interview down below:
