“Who set the city on fire as soon as he got freed… It’s clear to see that I’m ahead of my time… I got some time, it ain’t sh** cause I get better wit time… I got a packed house yellin (Bring ’em out, bring ’em out)”. TI, “Bring Em Out”, Urban Legend, 2004.

BALANCE. HARMONY. RECIPROCITY.

Dear Tip,

Welcome home! We’ve missed you. I’ve missed you. Even the haters have missed you. For the last several months I’ve done my best to cast in a much better way the ways in which rap music, hip hop culture, and the post civil rights/millennium generation understands the world in which we live. Through lyrics and quotes, since February of this year I’ve sent out something called The Daily Dose of Realness, or The DDR, as a way to shed some light and offer some daily insight on our style of doing things. Yes, we’ve used your material; “Live Your Life” to remind people there is a difference between image and identity.  That “image” is what other people see, and “identity” is who you are! Using your song’s message, we challenged them to refrain from posing and trying to be someone else. We encourage our devoted audience to create their own identity, LIVE THEIR LIFE, and keep people around them who lift them up and love them up with good thoughts, energy, and vibes. Indeed, there’s a message in the music. YOUR MUSIC! This is what the consciousness of hip-hop culture is right?

Mr. Harris, you and I go way back. As a writer for XXL, I interviewed this budding young rapper – you – because there was something special about you. It was 2001. I told Bonsu Thompson, my music editor at the time, this guy TI is gonna be a star and we should definitely cover him. Even then you were controversial. You called yourself the King of the South. This was your image. But your identity as far as I could tell was grounded in this young Black male from Atlanta who had a brilliant mind and a hustler’s spirit that would either build him or destroy him. And as we drove down Bankhead highway in that maroon-colored Chevy Suburban you talked so confidently about your future. That day we became friends. We linked our talents, and produced your first national press in XXL’s “Show and Prove” section. We lost contact until 2008 when our paths crossed again after you were charged with gun possession. You had reached celebrity status, and I had parlayed my position as a hip hop journalist into a hip hip scholar. Who knew that our reconnection would lead to me introducing you to Andrew Young, which turned into us producing “Walking With Guns” (and winning an Emmy-award for it), Andrew Young speaking on your behalf at your first sentencing, and then presiding over your wedding to Tameka. Mr. Harris we were proud of how you turned a negative situation into a positive. And we were heartbroken to see you have to go back. So today I decided to offer you your own personal Daily Dose of Realness.

The TI DDR: PLEASE DON’T GO BACK!!! The world needs your spirit from the outside. Not from the inside. You say you’re a king right?  Kings surround themselves and their family with people who have their best interests at heart!! No money in the world can buy you happiness! That comes from living a life grounded in truth, justice, order, balance, and righteousness. These things are priceless Mr. Harris. So heed to your own advice TIP! Live your life; keep God first; and see the beginning, middle, and end of the choices you make. Like Eddie Murphy said in Beverly Hills Cop, “Don’t fall for the banana in the tailpipe!”

Written with love,

Dr. Joyce