[iTunes Plus Music & Videos]: T.I.

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domingo, 28 de abril de 2013

T.I. - Trouble Man: Heavy Is the Head (Deluxe Version) (Album) [iTunes Plus AAC M4A/M4V]

Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap, Music
Released: Dec 18, 2012

T.I. - No Mercy (Deluxe Version) (Album) [iTunes Plus AAC M4A/M4V]

Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap, Music
Released: Dec 06, 2010

While he may no longer be the undisputed King of the South, he continues to crank out his unique brand of trap music to fiending audiences around the world. Originally titled King Uncaged, No Mercy is his seventh solo album, and he's stated that it's the final chapter in a trilogy that includes T.I. vs T.I.P. and Paper Trail. Produced by platinum hitmakers like Kanye, the Neptunes, Jake One, and Lil C, its sound is bold, brash, and extremely slick all-around, ideally suited for heavy spins on the radio and in the club. Lyrically, he sounds off on growing up and changing his ways ("How Life Changed" and "Get Back Up"), but also drops the requisite jams about partying ("Poppin' Bottles") and freaky chicks ("Strip"). Arguably his most polished and pop-minded effort to date, it is also overflowing with high-profile features from Eminem, Drake, Christina Aguilera, Kid Cudi, Pharrell, Chris Brown, and many more.

T.I. - Paper Trail (Album) [iTunes Plus AAC M4A]

T.I.

Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap, Music, Dirty South, Gangsta Rap
Released: Sep 08, 2008

Recorded while T.I. was under house arrest on pending gun charges, Paper Trail is split between songs that address two distinct objectives. “No Matter What” and “My Life, Your Entertainment” allow T.I. to speak candidly to his audience about his stress, his mistakes, and his anger as an impending prison sentence looms over him. Just as importantly, “Live Your Life” and “Whatever You Like” are memorable radio spectacles designed to bring the masses on board and keep them there, at least until T.I.’s legal woes subside. While the storming “Swagga Like Us” and the extravagant “What Up, What’s Haapnin’” are the songs that will sell Paper Trail, the album’s heart and soul rest with the tracks on which T.I. bares his soul. On “Ready For Whatever,” he admits his own guilt, and confides: “500,000 every year spent on security / My future was bright but now its getting’ blurry.” Conventional wisdom says that during a crisis pop stars should keep up their guard and make like nothing’s wrong, but Paper Trail is at its most compelling when T.I. is confessing his vulnerability in the face of all that plagues him.

T.I. - Paper Trail: Case Closed - EP [iTunes Plus AAC M4A]

iTunes EP, T.I.

Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap, Music, Dirty South, Gangsta Rap
Released: 21 August 2009

T.I. - T.I. Vs. T.I.P. (Deluxe Edition) (Album) [iTunes Plus AAC M4A/M4V]

iTunes Video, T.I.

Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap, Music, Gangsta Rap, Dirty South
Released: Jun 12, 2007

T.I. vs. T.I.P. could only have come at this precise moment in its author’s career. 2006 saw T.I. breaking into the world of movies and Grammy awards; at the same time, a senseless gunfight after a show in Cincinnati left his best friend Philant Johnson dead. His life as a corner boy and his career as a pop star had never been in such volatile opposition, and T.I.’s identity crisis reaches a boiling point on T.I. vs. T.I.P... In attempt to appease both angles of his internal conflict, T.I. split the album between his two personalities. The first, and stronger, half belongs to the charismatic street hustler T.I.P., who brings fire and force to the album’s strongest tracks: “Big Shit Poppin’,” “Raw,” “Hurt,” and “Watch What You Say,” which finds T.I, trading lines with rap’s pre-eminent hustler-turned-CEO, Jay-Z. The second half of the album is credited to the level-headed businessman T.I. and is lined with lightweight club songs. T.I.’s warring personalities come together on the last three tracks of the album, but by that time, the verdict has been cast. His celebrity acumen may have gotten him to the top of the entertainment business, but when it comes to making rap records it’s still the wild-eyed street kid within that wins.

T.I. - King (Album) [iTunes Plus AAC M4A]

T.I.

Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap, Music, Gangsta Rap, Dirty South
Released: Mar 28, 2006

“What You Know” was the biggest song of 2006, and with King T.I. intended to prove he was the dominant rapper of not just the South, but the hip-hop community at large. To accomplish this, he did more than just rhyme about being the best — he invested in every inch of King a confidence so immense that denying the album’s largeness would be pointless. “Ride Wit Me,” “Top Back,” and “Front Back” are stadium rap anthems, songs that have the thrust to bring massive crowds to their feet. Other songs show boldness in unexpected ways. “Live In the Sky” is ballad that is reflective without being sappy, while “Why You Wanna” audaciously reworks a decidedly uncool piece of ‘90s club music (Crystal Waters’ “Gypsy Woman”) into a great song. Although King is the album on which T.I. becomes a giant, “I’m Straight” and “Undertaker” show that he hasn’t forgotten the soulful ghetto raps that made a classic of Trap Muzik. Even when he is riding the impossibly monstrous beats of “Get It” and “I’m Talkin’ To You” T.I.’s effortless singsong flow remains anchored in the jump rope chants of the Atlanta schoolyards in which he grew up.

T.I. - Urban Legend (Album) [iTunes Plus AAC M4A]

T.I.

Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap, Music, Gangsta Rap, Hardcore Rap, Dirty South
Released: Nov 29, 2004

While its numerous guest spots and bids for commercial acceptance prevent Urban Legend from running as deep as Trap Muzik, T.I.’s flow and monumental swagger have only become more potent. The album slams into action with the astonishing “ASAP,” in which a whirlpool of fanfares and wah guitar engulf the listener as T.I. issues his warning: “Might be thrown off my rocker just slightly / Fiesty, claimin' hot temper don't ignite me / I'm only gonna ask ya find the exit once politely.” “Motivation” is a tribute to T.I.’s unwavering focus and formidable rhyme skills, while Lil Kim, Pharrell and Nelly show up for a bevy of raunchy club tracks. While the Jay-Z sample on “Bring ‘Em Out” is proof that T.I. is more than ready to inherit the crown from the rap’s reigning kingpin, there are moments on Urban Legend that share more with Scarface’s ruminations than Jay-Z’s bluster. T.I. spends the majority of his time picking fights with his foes and recounting his riches, but “Prayin’ For Help” reveals a pensive, remorseful soul of a gangster gone straight: “While I'm lookin' at the life I left, it's kinda hard not to hate myself / But quiet as kept, right or wrong it's just the way I felt / I might be better off prayin' for death, on my knees I knelt / Still tryin' to find a way to accept, it ain't a way that I can help nobody 'til I save myself / Technically I'm still a slave myself / I gotta climb out the grave myself, man I played myself.”

T.I. - Trap Muzik (Deluxe Edition) (Album) [iTunes Plus AAC M4A/M4V]

iTunes Video, T.I.

Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap, Music, Gangsta Rap, Dirty South
Released: Aug 19, 2003

This deluxe reissue of Atlanta rapper T.I.’s commercial and artistic breakthrough Trap Muzik displays T.I.’s clear influence on a host of emerging Atlanta trap and snap rap artists. On Trap Muzik T.I. succeeded in effortlessly fusing the frantic bounce tempos and slang heavy street narratives of his debut with the polished aesthetics of mainstream Hip-Hop. The jittery drum programming and chopped and screwed refrain of “Bezzle” referenced a host of longstanding Southern Rap tropes, from the slow rolling tempos of Houston’s Rap-a-lot family to the bass heavy club music of the now forgotten Atlanta rap pioneer MC Shy-D. And radio-ready tunes like the triumphant “Rubber Band Man” saw T.I. brokering an uneasy truce with the synth-heavy beats and anthemic choruses of mainstream rap. The results are never less than mesmerizing, as T.I. has the charisma and the talent to make this potentially awkward marriage of styles seem effortless.

T.I. - I'm Serious (Album) [iTunes Plus AAC M4A]

T.I.

Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap, Music, Dirty South, Gangsta Rap
Released: Sep 10, 2001

Atlanta rookie T.I. wants to be taken seriously, but after listening to the first couple of tracks on his debut album, it's hard to do that. The young rapper is filled with so much bluster and confidence that it's hard to take him at face value. I'm Serious is, after all, his first album, and he has the audacity to call himself the king of the South. Despite all the bravado, T.I. still has plenty of lyrical ability and uses it to chronicle his ability to get women ("The Hotel") and to dump women ("I Can't Be Your Man"). He also shows a more sensitive side on the track "I Still Ain't Forgave Myself." Production-wise, I'm Serious doles out plenty of typical Southern-fried funk, with the Neptunes producing one of the best tracks on the album with "What's Yo Name," as well as the title track, "I'm Serious." Unfortunately, too many of the other tracks sound the same and a few are blatant rip-offs, namely "Do It," which is a note-for-note remake of Juvenile's hit "Back That Azz Up." T.I. claims to be the king of the South, but on I'm Serious he fails to show and prove. He does, however, have potential. If his talent ever matches his confidence, he may be headed for stardom. [I'm Serious was also released in a "clean" edition, containing no profanities or vulgarities.]