T.I. To Youth: “Take It Slow, Buy Your Artillery Legally”
T.I. recently gave the Atlanta Journal-Constitution a look into his chastened, post-trial soul as he prepares to fufill a year of community service before imprisonment. “Sometimes it was like, ‘If I don’t get this right now I’m just going to lose it’… When you’re going 350 mph it tends to be that way. But when you are stopped–halted–not slowed down, but halted, you figure ‘Well I could have just slowed down. I didn’t have to be stopped.’… GM had to back up off of me. There are films that I missed out on. Not speaking of, of course, shows. Tours. Tons of business. I’ve probably lost about $10 to $12 million dollars.” See, kids? If you don’t take the time to acquire your weapons through the correct channels, you’ll miss out on some potential business ventures.
It looks like he’ll get one more movie shoot in before jail, though, as he’s signed to play a bank robber in Bone Deep, which begins shooting this fall. Along with the movie and that pesky community service, 2008 promises a new album, a new clothing line, a collabo with Amy Winehouse and some TV productions, including a reality show for Young Dro and maybe one for T.I. himself on MTV.
Well, there is some documentation being done. We’re actually in the middle of negotiating exactly what it would take to be able to have that type of access to my life. But I think it’s something that needs to be out there on a broad spectrum…The message that I’m trying to get out. How much work that I have to do in the time that I have to do it in. All of this, I think, needs to be known. And that’s a way to deliver the same message that I just delivered to those 15, 20, 30 kids, to the nation. They’ll sit in front of the TV — even if I can’t make it to their school; or if I can’t make it to their Y.”
Wow, he may even make a profit from this community service crap! And how would he describe how he felt about being arrested before his BET Awards performance?
It was sort of like a, well, you remember the [last] Super Bowl, right? You know Jeremy Shockey? He broke his leg. He had to sit up in the press box and watch. He couldn’t help his team win. He couldn’t play. The greatest, most talked-about, most publicized Super Bowl in our time and he’s sitting watching; instead of actually being able to participate. Terrible… And I know, I know, I brought it on myself.
No word on when his inspiring, educational, “I know, I know, I brought it on myself” message will make it onto the airwaves. (Negotiations, you know.)
T.I.: ‘I know I brought it on myself’ [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
