Tip delivers his hits, performs poignant tracks live for the first time during show set to air in December.By Shaheem Reid
T.I. on "VH1 Storytellers"
Photo: VH1
The words are still as meaningful and penetrating as they were in 2001. T.I. took the stage on Tuesday night at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City and led the audience back to album number one, track 2.
"They sendin' letters home from school, nobody read mines," Tip rapped from "Still Ain't Forgave Myself." "And plus, my uncle's doin' 10 years F.E.D. time/ Then I started rebellin', began crack sellin' / The littlest thang on the corner with a Mac 11 / After school, I hear my mama holla homework / I say, 'aiiiight ma,' but look, I got my own work / Started interacting with fiends at the age of 13 / Now my mama findin' rocks in my socks, glocks in my toy box."
Onstage to tape his episode of "VH1 Storytellers: T.I," the Atlanta MC delivered what was arguably his most intimate performance ever. (The show airs Friday, December 10 at 11 p.m. ET/PT on VH1.)
"I never performed [that song] since it was recorded," Tip told the crowd of track, a standout from his 2001 debut, I'm Serious. The King of the South said it just felt "too personal" to perform before.
"It took years to find the proper stage and proper crowd to present it to you guys," he explained. "Now I think the time is right. Glad to be presenting it to you."
Tip also said that although he would be performing what his fans saw as songs, hits even, for him it was altogether different. "To me, this is my life, my story," he said. "I've lived these things, endured these circumstances."
He went on to reveal the backstory for another early record that he hadn't performed live until that night. "I Still Luv You," Tip explained, was inspired by the mother of his two sons, with whom he started a family as a teenager. The daughter he had by another woman and whom he had kept secret from his family for a while, as well as his relationship with his father also inspired the song, he revealed.
"Motivation," from T.I.'s 2004 Urban Legend, was written in jail. Tip said that stint behind bars was a result of some criminals wrongly implicating him in a crime. As the police searched his house, they found a gun.
"Who would have thought?" he joked. Tip said that the gun was registered to someone else, and he wound up going to jail for a short time. "Oddly enough for me," he laughed. The record itself was inspired by "a rapper who used my dark moment as his bright moment. ... It didn't rub me the right way."
Tip gave us plenty of bright moments, too, during the taping, with performances, in particular, of the smashes "Live Your Life" and "Bring Em Out."
What songs do most want to hear T.I. perform live? Share with us in the comments!
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