The supposed awakening of the new reformed T.I turns out to be just another chapter of mischief. T.I's latest album release entitled No Mercy took a very different turn than what was previously expected. T.I whose real name is Clifford Harris was arrested on October 13, 2007 four hours before the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta. He was charged with two felonies — possession of three unregistered machine guns and two silencers, and possession of firearms by a convicted felon. In February 2008 T.I plead guilty to U.S. federal weapons charges. On May 26, 2009, T.I. began serving his one year one day sentence in Forrest City, Arkansas. In December 2009 T.I was released from prison. After getting out he released a mix-tape, a single for the motion picture Takers, and started hyping up his comeback album appropriately titled King Uncaged.
In September 2010 T.I and his wife Tiny were arrested in Los Angele's for drug possession. In October T.I was sentenced to 11 months less than a year after being released from prison. The album King Uncaged was then changed to No Mercy. The album is has somewhat of a strange flow to it because some of it was written before T.I's latest sentencing and some after it. The overall theme of the album is simply "I'm human and I make mistakes so stop judging me". T.I's lyrical style on No Mercy is arrogantly apologetic, blunt, and passionate. In the song "Get Back Up" strategically featuring R&B singer Chris Brown who has clearly had his own set of troubles with the law and moral integrity T.I comments sums his fillings up quite eloquently.
He says:
"apologies to my fans and my closest friends, (I'm sorry)
for letting you down, I wont take you down this road again
most of you now saying whatever, here we go again
blogs, radio, and television all going in
I laugh to keep from crying through all of the embarrassment
I gotta say you f-cking haters is hilarious
how dare you sit right there and act as if you holier than thou
point your finger now with me looking down
same clown that was twitpic'ing at my wedding
on the same twitter page disrespecting ."
T.I also has songs like "Amazing" featuring Pharell Williams of the superstar production team The Neptunes in which the chorus simply repeats "so amazing make your face fall off." T.I and Pharrell basically vulgarly talks about the things they do to women and how rich and talented they are. On another extreme T.I also has a song entitled "Castle Walls" which will undoubtedly be a single soon that features Christina Aguilara. "Castle Walls" is T.I's heartfelt anthem of the troubles that none of us will ever understand. He tells us that just because he has millions of dollars, Ferraris in the driveway, and fame heartache still lurks behind the gates of his mansion. The intention is honorable as he explains that through all his accomplishments he has failed as a man if his kids and family aren't happy and don't succeed. It's easy to start to sympathizing with him until you snap out of it and realize he's brought all his issues to his own drawbridge. His heart is in the right place with his concern for his family and his responsibility to the community but how bad can you feel for a man with millions of dollars that is having legal trouble due to self admitted and inflicted stupidity. In the song "How Life Has Changed" he reminsices about how he used to drug deal and buy shoes and now he's looking at stocks.
The question one must pose listening to a song like this is when will this man learn from his mistakes? He's clearly came a long way from his drug dealing and hustling background but when we will he learn to truly go down the right path. No Mercy is undoubtedly a good hip hop album with the best music production money can buy. The lyrics are strong and he showcases why he's certainly considered one of the hip hop greats but it's very difficult to listen some of the songs with him speaking like his criminal days are over. He makes it very clear that he is only human and makes mistakes but implies the world should wait and see how much he's matured. T.I has lived a life that seems like it was written for VH1's Behind the Music. No Mercy is absolutely a must have album for T.I fans but it is not the triumph redemption we hope we will have one day soon. We'll try again in about 10 months.
