Clifford Joseph Harris likes to call himself the king of the South, but he’s more like the southern version of Tupac—smallish (in stature) with an ego and mouth every bit as big as the deceased Oakland emcee’s. Whereas ’Pac wore his good-guy, bad-guy contradictions like a badge of courage, the dual personalities of Atlanta’s pre-eminent spitter weigh like an albatross on his neck.
On snippets of his previous albums, he alluded to the difficult act of balancing his forever-beefing, gun-toting thug side (T.I.) with the remorseful ex-drug dealer who’s rapidly ascending into hip-hop’s hierarchy (T.I.P.). Given that build-up, a concept album seemed a natural, if oft-used (see: Nelly), career move.
One-upping the traditional good vs. bad conflict—the former played out in the first seven songs, the latter in tracks eight through 14—Harris attempts to add some finality to his internal struggle, an Armageddon-ish showdown (songs 15-18) to determine the better man: the father/astute businessman/budding pitchman, or the bodacious braggart who’s made a career of pissing off his Atlantic Records bosses and recently scrapped with a member of Ludacris’ entourage at the BET Awards, jeopardizing endorsement deals.
Unfortunately, you have to trudge through 14 tracks of varying quality just to find out that he doesn’t even answer the question. The title track isn’t even a song, but rather a bunch of threats spoken over beats.
As for who is better, T.I.P. wins a weak contest by default, helped along by best-flow-in-years contributions from Jay-Z (“Watch What You Say to Me”) and Busta Rhymes (“Hurt”), whereas a so-so-sounding Nelly (“Show it to Me”) and Eminem’s too-intricate wordplay (“Touchdown”) add little heat to the T.I. side.
And none of the album’s three acts rekindle the hungry spirit of King or Trap Muzik, where, à la Tupac, Harris’ Jekyll-Hyde persona produced lip-snarling, knuck-if-you-buck, no-nuts-no-glory music tinged, ironically and effectively, with messages of hope and redemption. Better luck next time.
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T.I.
T.I. vs. T.I.P.
** 1/2