![]() ![]() The thing is, you have to do what you know you do. It seems like keeping people's attention spans would be a challenge. These days two or three weeks is like a lifetime, especially in hip-hop. ![]() This time, there were not as many of those protocols involved. There were certain systematic protocols and procedures that I didn't necessarily. I could say that I didn't want to do it in a certain way, but the consequence of doing it my way was always, "I guess we're going to have to spend an extra XYZ or wait an extra week or two or three," and that usually impacted the weight of my decision. Before, I was in control of everything except how long it took the infrastructure in the building to turn things around. You know, I have a more flexible partner, I'll say. ![]() Does the way you're working now give you more control than before? You've released Da' Nic in a different way, with a new distributor, and you announced its release from Twitter headquarters. So right here, I felt with Da' Nic and The Dime Trap, which is my tenth album, I felt like I would dedicate this completely to the day-one fan and make my name what it should have been in the first place. You know, those misses kind of dilute the attention span of the day-one fan. So sometimes you find guys dedicated a lot of time and attention to the mainstream part of making music, and those of us who do it well, we succeed many times, but in that process you must have some misses. I think that every artist, once you get a taste of success in the mainstream pop arena, everyone expects-and you expect from yourself-to follow that up with something similar. Both of them have contributed enormous amounts of success to my career, and have enabled me to be unapologetically diverse. I always associate certain records, like "Why You Wanna," "Whatever You Like," "Let's Get Away"-certain brighter, more colorful, lighter records-with T.I., and more trouble man-themed records- "U Don't Know Me," "What You Know," "Top Back,"-I associate with Tip. as who I became for the industry, and Tip is who I've always been. So I guess, traditionally, I always looked at T.I. I think KP was like, "What about T.I.?" And I was like, "What the fuck is 'T.I.'? What does that mean?" And he was like, "You got something better?" And I'm like, Man, fuck it. So I was like Okay, just come up with something. Much to my dismay, I found out that that suggestion was more. ultimatum-ish. I felt like, since it's just a suggestion, maybe if I come up with nothing then, you know, things'll stay as they are. They strongly suggested that I change my name, but I had nothing to change my name to. In the process of making my very first album, I got signed as Tip, but my name then had to change when Arista acquired LaFace because that then put me on the same label as Q-Tip. That's what people who know me personally call me. Tip is me, personally, outside of the celebrity. one, and on the cover it's actually credited to Tip. I saw that you said Da' Nic is a Tip record and not a T.I. Just after the surprise release of a new return-to-form EP Da' Nic-not to mention some more scene-stealing work flexing his funny side in Get Hard and Ant-Man-Esquire sat down with Tip to talk about his upcoming album The Dime Trap, the state of hip-hop, and how he balances the different sides of his personality. The conflicted relationship between the guy who got caught with machine guns in his car and the guy who helped turn Iggy Azalea into a global megastar has been one of his most compelling qualities, especially as it's played out in his music. is a street-rap hero, a pop star, an entrepreneur, an ex-convict, a reality-show personality, and a comedic actor. Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr. is a complicated man, and that comes through in the number of different, sometimes contradictory, roles he's played in pop culture since he first broke out with a scene-stealing verse on Atlanta rapper Bone Crusher's 2003 single "Never Scared." The man better known as T.I. ![]()
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