July 03, 2007 @ 12:31 pm

MY ALBUM'S OUT: T.I.

Benjamin Meadows-Ingram

T.I. speaks on fame, winning and his regrets. Unpublished excerpts from our T.I. cover story.

The old and the new, the personal and the public, the smile and the scowl - T.I. has navigated these splits in his personality for years. After a year filled with personal tragedy, he slows down to talk to Benjamin Meadows-Ingram about all of it - and about getting to know himself just a little bit better.
T.I. vs. T.I.P. drops today, July 3. What follows is a never-before-published excerpt from our August 2007 interview, exclusively on VIBE.com. What about your work excites you? Does production excite you, does acting excite you, does making music -
Winning excites me. Being able to win, put myself in position to win. Making good moves. Doing good deals. You know, business. Is it always a financial thing or can it be more abstract?
You know when you've made a good move. Everybody knows when they made a good move. Everybody knows their minimum has been reached or their maximum has been reached in certain deals, situations, or scenarios. If I reach a situation where I maxed out its potential, I won. Do you enjoy being famous?
Nah, not so much. Sick of it?
Naw, it ain't that I'm sick of it I just don't enjoy it as much As much as you used to?
Naw I don't enjoy it as much as I enjoy making music, what got me in it in the first place. I love making music but the fame shit I didn't really account for and I don't enjoy it as much as I enjoy making music. You were never like, "I'm gonna be famous and that's gonna be a good thing."
I mean - Or was it more like once you got here you were like, "Holy shit, this shit fucking sucks."
Kind of. Yeah, kinda. I mean, you catch privileges here and there, you catch perks. You have fringe benefits here and there, financial gain here and there, and then you just deal with the bullshit in between. I would think the money is obviously the draw.
Nah. You can get money other ways, you can get money elsewhere. And even you can be famous…it's the fame of a rapper. It's rap fame [that's difficult]. What do you mean?
Denzel Washington don't have the same problems as me. But he can't go anywhere either.
Shiiit, Denzel Washington don't have the same problems. In what way?
People approach him differently. I mean in doing American Gangster together, we was in Harlem. All the while he was out there I was out there. His security never got surrounded. Like the people that go above and beyond the ramifications of being a fan at a young age like 13, they don't really care about Denzel. They know him, but, you know. And they don't know how to be people yet so they get fucking crazy.
Yeah, so they minds are blown by this person being in front of them so they don't know how to act. And more people that don't know how to act approach me than they do Denzel. That's what I mean. Like the world asks for everything from you but with Denzel, they don't ask for all of it. You see that with pop stars. It's almost like people want to take pieces of you home with them.
Like cut a piece off of me. Yeah I don't know what's up with folks, people crazy. Like, it's something missing from people's lives. And they looking at us to fulfill it. Aiight, I guess. I thought you just bought the album just 'cause you liked the song. I don't know what people expect for you to extend to them and not make yourself suffer. It's like, if I'm here with my kids, right, and the only time I don't got to spend with my kids all week, all month or whatever, I break away from that to spend all this time with you for whatever reason. . . if you really a fan and you care like you say, why don't you care about me missing out on [my family] to do this? And if not, then you're not as much of a fan as you think you are, you just selfish. A lot of times you have to break it down to people to where they understand it and you know sometimes people are assholes. People are just stupid, don't know no better. Can't even see past they nose so it's kind of like talking to a brick wall. Does the fame make you crazy?
Maybe. I mean, shit,I don't know what sane or crazy is. They say it's a thin line between brilliance and insanity. Who's to say what's sane and what's crazy? Who's to say what we call crazy and insane and vice versa? Who knows? I feel fine. If I feel crazy, then I should worry. How do you think you're doing about what Diana Ross said about keeping a part of you for yourself?
I think I could do better. I think I could do better. You know I wanna do whatever people ask me to do even if I don't wanna do it I wanna find a way some how to compromise you know. I wanna do something. If you ask me to do something I'm gonna try to do something. Even if I'm not doing what you want me to be doing I'm gonna try to do something. You know, sometimes even I shouldn't do that. But whatever my heart say do that then I do it. What is your biggest regret?
I don't waste time with regrets. It made me what I am today whatever it was it made me what I am today. Why would I regret it? You know, I wouldn't be this if I wasn't... if I didn't do that. Finally going through that no matter how painful it was I wouldn't be the same person I am right here today. To find out what T.I. says about his girlfriend Tiny, being a father to six children, and the passing of his best friend, pick up VIBE's August 2007 issue, on stands July 10.

Article tags: T.I., T.I.P. 

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