Is TI really the king?

So I was sitting here this morning and saw Clifford “TI” Harris on Cold Pizza. I derive great humor from how he bills himself on ATL as Tip “TI” Harris. Reminds me of my boy Dricoe who used to say that TI would always ask him to call him by his rap name, Tip. Dricoe’s response was, “I call him by his name–Clifford.”
Anyway, there was TI on this show talking about the movie, his album, Atlanta sports, and a few other things. At that moment, it hit me finally that he really has become the King of the South.
That’s right–Scarface needs to move over.
On this here show, Tip did something that I always love to see–made the interviewer come to him. Frequently, black folks get on television with white folks and try to sound like people they’re not. They try too hard to use accepted cliches, flip up their vocabulary, all of that stuff. Didn’t see that here.
I’m not saying he broke down some shit that you could only understand if you’ve logged significant Bankhead time, but he sounded so wonderfully natural. The coolest thing about Tip to me has always been that he’s smart as hell, knows he’s smart as hell, but doesn’t try to beat you over the head with that intelligence. It simply exists, and he can let it exist because it’s undeniable.
That’s why he can bring all that Atlanta to this television show and still nail it perfectly. He’s a born star, dripping with sincerity. My favorite emcee in the game right now without question.
(And anyone that can’t appreciate that because his drawl is thick can kiss my ass. I mean that.)
And yes, the album is dope dope dope. It’s not as dope as the new Ghostface–nor the Juve, probably–but it goes hard as hell.
I’ll talk more about this tomorrow, but here’s what’s worth noting–I always told JR that if Tip hit us with another banger with this new record, I’d give him his own Top 25 list.
Tomorrow, I’ll be doing a list. Dig?