Pimp C: First of all, man, shit, it’s good to be able to talk to you, homie. T.I.: Man, you already know. It’s more than mutual. The respect level is very, very high right now. Pimp C: What it really seems like to me is that you really looked and watched what happened to the rest of the rappers, and the shit that went down in the 80s and the 90s. You kinda learned from other boy’s mistakes. So I know you off into some other things. So I’m sayin’, what are you doin’ besides this rap shit? T.I.: Well, we got the real estate shit, New Finish Construction is going good. We got Elite Auto Concierge which is me and Kevin Schuler in Atlanta. We buy and fix up cars for guys who got a little money to spend on it. And we just opened a club, me and my uncle. We just opened a club in Bankhead called Club Crucial; it’s doing well. Other than that, bruh, I’m tryin’ to get into some fashion shit. I’m tryin’ to get a shoe deal. All that other shit is shark water, so I gotta figure out what the best situation is for me before I just jump into it. Pimp C: Man, tell me about the real estate. T.I.: Aww, man, well on the real estate I can’t take too much credit. When my uncle went and had to sit down for ten, while he was down he just used his time. He learned how to build a house form the top to the bottom, so when he came home he had a plan. Right when he came back that was in ’99, when I was just getting my first few little checks, so I just put some money to the side with him while he was starting out. I just rode it out from there. Pimp C: I know you got Grand Hustle. What exactly is your position with Grand Hustle? Is it your company by yourself, or is it some other people involved? What’s the deal? T.I.: Well, I’m the co-founder, man. Myself and Jason Geter decided to go ahead and make it official and put the stamp on it right when we got off Arista and started doing our own thing. We figured we were acting as an independent company anyway, so we might as well get the credit for it. You know when you facilitating your own shows and making your own way, putting up your own money for marketing, promotions, and shooting your own videos, all kinds of shit like that, you might as well be in a profit sharing situation. So that’s what me and Jason decided to do back in ‘01, and ever since then we been building. Myself, Jason Geter, P$C, Clay Evans, Hannah Kang, you know, we got a lot of cats who all got common goals in mind. Pimp C: So, how do you balance the CEO role and being an artist? I noticed from the beginning of this rap shit, when niggas have people on their label, it seems like the other artist never blows up as big as the guy that’s putting them out. T.I.: That’s true. Pimp C: So how do you balance that, and how do you keep you being an artist in check when it’s time to deal with your artist as an executive? T.I.: Well, it’s still an art that I ain’t completely mastered yet. I’m still working on it. So it’s an ongoing, uphill battle every day just trying to get better at. But I just keep on waking up every morning putting one foot in front of the other, you know? I really just let Jason handle all the executive and CEO duties unless it’s dealing with my project, ya dig? He helps a whole lot, but when I’m on my off time, really I would love to see Young Dro or Mac Boney or Big Kuntry King or any one of my artists come up way more than me, so I could sit back with my feet crossed. I really would like to focus on more other things. Pimp C: Well, shit. Let’s talk about what you working on right now. You got an album about to come out? T.I.: Yeah, we got the album King about to come out. You bein’ an Underground King yourself, I’m sure you can relate, man, especially since you already know we on there together. Y’all gave me the absolute honor of letting me redo one of y’all classics [“Front, Back, Side to Side”] and getting on there with me, so I appreciate that. Pimp C: The way I saw it was like this, homie. It took a lot of nuts for you to jump out there and grab yo’ nuts and tell these niggas you the “King of the South.” You know, a whole lot of niggas didn’t understand what you meant by that. They thought that by you saying that, you were in some kinda way stepping on other nigga’s toes or tryin’ to
take somebody else’s position. But the way I took it was like this: we all some kings down here. Niggas got to play it like they kings and put theyself in a king’s position in order to be treated that way. So that’s the way I took the shit. But other niggas took it a different way, like maybe you were saying that you running this shit down here and ain’t nobody else doing nothing. Maybe you might want to speak on that. T.I.: Man, exactly the way you said it, that’s the way I meant it. I was really speaking on my plans for the future, ya dig? When I first mentioned it, niggas started telling me what I couldn’t do and what I couldn’t say, so it really lit a fire up under my ass. At that point, that’s when it really became a part of me. At first it was just shit I was kickin’. Then a nigga tried to deny me of it, so it really became a part of me. I was forced to fight for it. Pimp C: Let me ask you this. How do you feel about the comparisons to Jay-Z? Every time I read an article of yours in these magazines, I see Jay-Z’s name. They’re always calling you “the Jay-Z of the South.” How do you feel about that? T.I.: I think those are some pretty major shoes to fill. He made a lot of things happen in the rap game that a lot of people weren’t able to do. He facilitated a lot of deals and made a lot of people a lot of money and got a lot of shit done. So if that’s how they see me, man, I appreciate it. I think people should ask him how he feels about it more than how I feel about it. Pimp C: Well, you know, I can pretty much speak on this. The way he feels about it is like a proud papa, cause of everything that’s going on. Wasn’t nobody wearing diamond necklaces until Jay-Z jumped out there with them. Wasn’t nobody wearing no muthafuckin’ platinum either. The only nigga I knew that was wearing platinum before Jay-Z was Shaq. The nigga really shaped the culture. He’s got niggas wearing button-up shirts now. I’m from the old school, so I was wearing button-up polo shirts way back, with the sweater to match. Already. Now he’s got everybody following him. Whenever a person says your name in any context compared with that man, it’s a compliment. T.I.: Just like you said, it’s an absolute pleasure, man. It’s an absolute honor to be compared to the elite in the game, from Outkast, to you guys [UGK], to Jay, to N.W.A, whoever really stood up on top of their shit and put it all on the line and won. Compare me with any of them niggas. Just don’t compare me with no fake niggas or no hoe niggas. Pimp C: Well, I’m a real nigga, and I like to get down to the bottom of shit. Muthafuckers are asking questions, you know? So a muthafucker wanna know: Is it some sneak shit goin’ on? What’s going on with you and the Flip guy? T.I.: I ain’t gonna bullshit ya, bruh, I ain’t made no new friends. But I just ain’t overexerting myself with no negative energy, ya dig? I’m sure he has his opinions on me and I got my opinions on him, but it ain’t no beef. It ain’t no war, it ain’t no plex. Pimp C: Down here in the South, in Texas, I’m seeing niggas making too much money to be mad at anybody right now. We have matching cars, houses, and we’re driving these big-ass cars with big names. So if you don’t get along with a person, niggas can just agree to disagree and go their separate ways. All that ol’ sneak-dissin’ and dropping salt, that’s bullshit. That’s just my opinion. T.I.: Absolutey. I’ma be perfectly honest with ya, Pimp. I feel like I stand on one side of the fence, and I represent everybody who stands on this side of the fence. If somebody else stands on that other side of the fence, it ain’t my fault if they fall in the lines of something that I don’t represent, or something I’m speaking against. That’s just the way of life and the order of operations and the way this nature thing works. It ain’t on me. if I say, “I ain’t fuckin’ with no hoe niggas who can’t go back to the hood,” I mean, if that ain’t you, then I ain’t talkin’ to you. But if you’re asking yourself, “Is he talking to me?” then you’ve got to question yourself. You know what I’m sayin’? Pimp C: I can understand that, cause they were always asking me, “Who’s that pussy ass nigga you’re talking about?” in my raps. Shit, I was like, “If the shoe fits, nigga, wear it.” So I think that was a real good answer to that question. But niggas got to get along cause it’s too much paper out here, man. Niggas can agree to disagree and stand on separate sides and be men. That’s what the business is, homie. T.I.: Yeah, bruh. I hear the same things. I hear a lot of speculation and OZONE
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