Multiple Grammy Award-winning rapper, TI, is passionate about three things: trap music, his paper and women who rap. That is clear when I get the American rapper on the phone while he is in his hometown of Atlanta. He is preparing to head to Mzansi to perform in Durban on Friday and at the Jack Daniel’s Boomtown Joburg on Saturday.
This is after his scheduled appearance at the Boomtown at the Durban July was cancelled last year. No matter, when I speak to him, he’s in high spirits about finally making the trip. “I’m excited to perform in South Africa, but I’m more excited to just visit,” he tells me.
“It’s my first visit and my first time to actually touch the soil. I’m looking forward to the experience as a whole. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to see the sights. (At the concerts), people can expect transference of energy. We’re coming to turn up.”
His 2003 multi-platinum album, Trap Muzik, cemented the rapper and actor who was born Clifford Harris jr as one of the custodians of trap music. His 10th album, Dime Trap, is a return to that.
Since South Africa also has a few artists – like WTF (who will perform at Boomtown) and Emtee’s African Trap Movement (ATM) – touting the genre, I ask TI what he thinks it is about trap music that transcends continents.
“I think that, for one, it comes from a very sincere place,” he explains. “From a place of ambition. Of kinetic energy that is combustible, sometimes, due to the ambition of the person delivering the message. If you have someone who comes from a certain walk of life and they have nothing but the utmost positive ambition to move themselves forward, that can provide some of the most insightful, energetic, prolific music that you can ever ask for.”
Dime Trap will be distributed by Jay-Z’s Rocnation and TI recently joined the likes of Beyoncé, Daft Punk, Nicki Minaj and Madonna and signed on to Hov’s TIDAL as one of the co-owners of the streaming service. He’s obviously wearing his money-making business hat when it comes to these decisions, so I ask him what the value of these artists unifying against machines like major record labels is.
“I think the most positive influence that music can have is the artists are the movers and true contributors of the culture,” the artist, who is also referred to as Tip, responds.
“We actually have a hand in the true pieces that make the business move right now. No one should be benefiting from Beyoncé more than Beyoncé. No one should be benefiting from Kanye West more than Kanye West. No one should be benefiting more from the artist than the artist. I think at TIDAL, they are true supporters of that. It has created a forum where the actual blood, sweat and tears of artists who go into our art and into our actual pieces comes back to us. We’re actually being compensated for it. It seems that the music business has moved to a place where it has got people to think, believe or assume that what we do shouldn’t be paid for.
“And I think that kills the actual production value that we’re able to offer the people. Because if you don’t pay us, we can’t invest as much in our concerts and can’t invest as much in the production of our albums and so forth. So for us to provide the most prolific experience as possible, you have to be willing to dedicate some funds to that. I think TIDAL is the most appropriate platform that’s able to make that happen.”
Aside from music, TI has established himself as an actor in Identity Thief and House of Lies, among others. This year, he’s starring alongside Jamie Foxx and Gabriel Union in Sleepless Night.
He says the movie is “an action thriller with myself and Jamie and working as partners on a police force. We find ourselves in a tight position due to some decisions we have made. How we work ourselves out of the tight position over the period of an evening, that’s the plot of the film.”
When he’s not in front of the camera, he’s executive producing shows like his family’s reality show, TI & Tiny: The Family Hustle as well as Sisterhood of Hip Hop, which have both screened on DStv. He’s particularly proud about his involvement in the latter. He did, after all, help to make Iggy Azalea a star.
“We really take interest in the plight of the female emcee,” he says. “How much a female has to go through to actually make it to a place where they have an opportunity to participate in and, hopefully, dominate a male-driven genre.
“Any time you have females breaking into a male-dominated space, it’s going to make for a wonderful documentation,” he continues, “and we felt like, why not be a part of that documenting of these females while they are doing their passion and contribute to them being able to follow their dreams.”
There is a third season of the show in the pipeline, but for now, TI’s eye is set on coming to South Africa.
Catch TI at the Durban Botanic Gardens on Friday and at the Jack Daniel’s Boomtown Joburg at Zoo Lake Sports Club on Saturday. Book at Computicket.