T.I. vs T.I.P.

I'm back from a break at home where my computer refused to connect to our wireless, so I can now resume posts. I admit I haven't been listening to a ton of new stuff over the past month or so, but I did get my hands on the latest release from southern rap star T.I. The album is titled T.I. vs T.I.P., which chronicles the rapper's internal battle between his cultured, intelligent personality T.I. and his streetwise, rebellious personality T.I.P (the moniker he formerly used before dropping the P in respect to fellow rapper Q-Tip).

I really felt this album was quite similar to his last release King, in many ways, both good and bad. For the most part T.I. brings back the same style and southern swagger that brought him to the spotlight in the beginning. The cocksure young rapper has a knack for combining hooks with great beats. My problem with this album is that some of his ideas seem to be recycled from time to time. There are many parts that sound similar, and often times I was reminded of stuff from King as well. This is related to the album's other problem, and that's too much filler. Just like King, this one comes in at 18 tracks, about 6 more than needed. A few of the weaker tracks could have easily been removed without drawing from the album as a whole.

The one other thing I didn't like was the lack of the slower songs. While T.I. is well known for his rapid style delivery, his slower songs in which his southern drawl is really brought out are powerful as well, such as What You Know. I felt this style of song was lacking here.

Here are a couple of my favorite tracks so far, including the single Big S**T Poppin' (Do It), the first single.

T.I. - Big S**T Poppin' (Do It)

T.I. - My Swag (feat. Wyclef Jean)

T.I. - Show It To Me (feat. Nelly)


Also I think I'm just going to post the links for downloading now. Embedding the links for streaming was more time consuming and I don't think it adds that much.

- Alec