T.I.: King of the South?

T.I. is a man of many names. He doesn't quite have as many nicknames as The Notorious BIG or Method Man, but he has his fair share. There was his original stage name, TIP, as well as his nicknames the Rubberband Man, or his other name, The King of the South. Perhaps one of the reasons that T.I. has so many names is that he's been in the game so long, since he was 11.

Of course, he didn't get his first big record deal at 11. He isn't Bow Wow or anything, even though Bow Wow has sung some T.I. lyrics that the rapper wrote for the young star. No, T.I. didn't get his first record deal until he was 19, and then that was with Arista. Not too shabby?

How's this as well? By the time he was 21, he had released the first T.I. album. That was in 2001. It was called "I'm Serious," and there was a T.I. song off the album of the same name. Besides that, T.I. got some serious help from big names in the business on this first album, including reggae star Beanie Man, Pharrell Williams, and Youngbloodz. Yet let's not all put our hands together just yet for T.I.. The album turned out, despite all this help, to be what Arista considered not the biggest smash success, and the label afterward cut the man.

Put Your Hands Together

But let's give T.I. some props. For what? Even though his first album, after much hype (Pharrell had called him the Jay-Z of the South), didn't do very well in the sales end of the things, the man didn't quit. He produced mixed tapes to stay fresh in the South, and he participated in other artists' music, such as what he did in 2003 with Bonecrusher.

So by the middle of 2003, he was ready to release the second T.I. album, "Trap Muzik." This came out in the number four slot on the charts, selling nearly a couple hundred thousand copies in the first week alone. T.I. songs such as "Let's Get Away" and "24s" helped out with the success, as well as the participation of big friends again-the likes of Bun B, David Banner, Kanye West, and MJG. The record ended up selling more than 1 million copies.

This success was piled on by another success, the third T.I. record. This one, released in 2004, was called "Urban Legend," with the biggest T.I. song off the album probably being "Bring Em Out," followed by "ASAP."

Best in the South?

But why stop there? T.I. came out with his next album in 2006, and this one ("King") came out as number one in the charts and sold a half million copies or more in the first week alone. It helped at this point that that same year T.I. had been nominated for a couple of Grammys.

His next T.I. record was "T.I. Vs. T.I.P.," a play off his two nicknames. It came out in 2007 as number one in the charts. His latest T.I. record, "Paper Trail," is soon to follow in 2008.

From T.I. to Hip Hop Music