T.I. had some practical advice for an aspiring rapper who hoped he would change her life.
An artist who goes by the name Tropicana approached T.I. asking to rap for him, hoping to sign to his label. She began spitting aggressively before asking his opinion.
“Listen,” he began. “Let me tell you something. Stop running up to n##### think they gone change your life. Ain’t nobody gone change your life but you.”
When Trapicana asked if he wouldn’t change her life, T.I. responded with an emphatic “Hell naw,” insisting she holds her destiny in her hands.
“I’m helping you by telling you don’t look for a n#### like me to change your life. You got everything you need already. It’s in you, don’t look to me,” he stated.
Nonetheless, Trapicana was undeterred. “I feel like it’s in you, though,” she persisted.
“NO! If you do what you need to do, I’m gone come find you. You ain’t got to come find me. You could reach all your fans right there,” he told her, pointing into the camera to indicate where her audience lies.”
Trapicana tried rapping for T.I. one more time but he stood firm and eventually his message hit home.
“Appreciate it. I needed that talk,” she told T.I. before they hugged it out.
She posted a video of the exchange on Instagram, joking that she took dinner with T.I. over $500K. “No food but atleast im full of knowledge,” she captioned the clip. ‘Thanks TIP.”
During a recent appearance on Shaquille O’Neal’s podcast, The Big Podcast with Shaq, T.I. shared his take on the current generation of rappers.
“I feel that, actually, what they’ve done with music is equivalent to if they were to open up the doors of the arena and say, ‘anybody think you can play basketball?” he explained. “Come on out the stands out here to the floor. Here go you a jersey, man. Get in the game”
