What you are supposed to do when you have reached the top?

If something like rap-star-instruction-courses could ever exist than teachers would definitely have to discuss musical career of T.I. there, along with other methods and visual examples. T.I.'s case looks very demonstrating and appropriate. There are no drastic leaps and different tricks of fortune. A story of a common guy who rose from the musical bottom up to the very top without outside assistance. First you release an album, which is good, then another, which is better and than you make a super album with a loud title King and move to riches. And the main point here is that everything was done with characteristic rap coloring, that is: brought up in ghetto, used to sell drugs and still at odds with other rappers. In a word, his career is not just perfect example but a feast for the eyes. But what's a rapper to do when the aim is achieved? It is really hard to get the same results without repeating your own ideas when your album is already the best rap record of 2006, it outstripped Jay-Z himself and even became the most selling album of Atlantic Records for the last 15 years. But T.I. has found the means of solving the situation. His new album T.I. Vs T.I.P. carries conceptual and very personal character. Perhaps it's not as good as King from the musical point of view but such an interesting representation compensates this to a certain extent.

Three parts of T.I. vs T.I.P.

The essence of the concept lies in the dichotomy of the album's subject matter. T.I. displays a struggle of two characters within him: T.I. - a material rapper and businessman and T.I.P. – T.I.'s dark half and incorrigible hustler. The idea as such is not original, Eminem's The Slim Shady for instance is probably something of the kind, but it is used quite seldom so it's interesting to hear a new interpretation. The more so because T.I. develops the subject in a full measure. The album is divided into three parts: the first one is assigned to T.I.P., the second belongs to T.I. and both of them appear on the third one. Musically the first part stands as the most successful, it has two main singles Big Shit Poppin and You Know What It Is and generally most of the material represented here sound pretty strong, the tracks with collaborations of Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes are especially good, Da Dopeman is also a memorable song. As to the second part it offers a lesser number of bright tracks and the songs mostly sound a little bit softer. Though it's not like that all the time, on Help Is Coming for instance T.I. demonstrates his skills in speedy rapping. Collaborations of Nelly and Eminem don't change the situation a lot; neither of them strikes your imagination in this case. But in general the second part doesn't sound really different from the previous one, most of the things are done in the same manner. Beats sound as powerful as before and T.I. isn't trying to change his cadence and delivery manner to express different characters.

T.I. always stays on top

The third part is the shortest and therefore here a listener meets with a high concentration of hit tracks or to be more precise all the four songs sound quite worthy and stand among the best ones on this album. T.I. argues with himself standing in front of the mirror, which he finally breaks on Act III: T.I. Vs. T.I.P. The Confrontation. This theme finds its continuation on Respect This Hustle and judging by the last words of this song the controversies between two characters will hardly ever be settled. The fact that T.I. decided to record a conceptual album deserves high praises. It is doubtful that the album will achieve the same success as the previous T.I.'s record but in general it sounds solid, coherent and quite competitive. T.I. produces professional rap albums for many years so one shouldn't worry that he is capable to release something completely failed. He always stays on top and never lets his guests take the leading positions. The stars were invited to bring some new coloring to his songs not to simply fill the content because T.I. suffered lack of material. Overall, T.I. Vs. T.I.P. fits in with the T.I.'s career quite well, it won't overshadow glory of King but its theatrical nature makes this record something really special.

19.07.2007