Paper Trail | T.I. | T.I Paper Trail

Paper Trail | T.I. | HE DID HIS THYNG...

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Paper Trail

	Paper Trail T.I. Grand Hustle/Atlantic, 2008 average customer review:based on 62 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

T.I. has grown to truly be one of his generation's most captivating speakers. Whether he's conversing frankly with a room full of youth about the positive side of staying in school and following their dreams, or moving tens of thousands at one of his concerts, the audiences are immediately engrossed by the King of the South's words. T.I., here delivers his most potent and important LP to date; 'Paper Trail.' The title is a direct reference to T.I.'s return to literally writing down his lyrics- a practice he hasnt engaged in since his debut. By going back to the basics T.I. has evolved into a better MC. The album features guest appearances and production by Lil Wayne. Rihanna, Usher, The Dream, Fall Out Boy, Kanye West, B.O.B, John Legend, DJ Toomp, Swizz Beatz, Drumma Boy, & Danja. This is the explicit version.

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T.I Paper Trail - A very decent CD!

I can honestly say that T.I's Paper Trail is an awesome CD all the songs you actually can enjoy of him. My favorite tracks are Live your life, Whatever you like, Dead and gone, No matter what, Whats up what happening, ready for whatever, on top of the world,swagga like us, the intro 56 bars & honestly really like the whole CD I personally think this album destroys Lil Wanyes tha carter 3 lil wanye album is good not good as this one T.I rocks he made boy! GO T.I sell and Whatever you like is #1 again GO T.I!!!!! I want dead and gone as a single.

HE DID HIS THYNG...

STR8 UP A GREAT ALBUM, NOT TOO GANGSTA, BUT KEPT IT REAL AND STREET, NICE FLOWZ...OK FEATURES, GREAT PRODUCTIONZ.

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Solid up front

T.I. hits another home run, but the best songs are front-loaded and the later songs are nowhere near being on the same level as the first half of the cd.

TI's production is second to none and delivery is a lot more consistent

Well guess who is back in the scene once more?

The guy who is better known by his stage name T.I., and also by his alter ego T.I.P. The man of many faces who also doubles as a co Grand Hustle Records king has been in a bit of legal trouble including getting arrested before the BET Awards in 2007. (I swear is that thing even safe anymore?)

Perhaps the year in total isolation has allowed the Atlanta rapper to thaw out a bit.

Paper Trail though doesn't one bit play out like Spike Lee's "The 25th Hour" and TI doesn't fully replace Edward Norton. But you would be hard-pressed to not find any semblance of TI's past 12 month sentence lingering in the echoes of this album. See with 2006's "King", it was event driven, and 2007's "T.I. vs. T.I.P." was concept driven (faulty in deliverance while we're at it), "Paper Trail" tops them both simply by being content driven, from the plot to the refined exchange.

T.I. has the urgency of a man rapping on borrowed time, showing up good rappers on "Swagga Like Us," which is played out to the backing of MIA's recent success hit "Paper Planes", he then goes to insulting ones he doesn't like on "What Up, What's Haapnin'," and making up with the one he's battled with for years. He comes together with Ludacris on "On Top of the World" for a 1-2 combination of Atlanta's bona fide mainstream heavyweights.

Not lost in the narrative is the meaning behind the album title as it goes. Rather than step in a booth and say whatever comes to mind, T.I. decided to actually write down his lyrics, somewhat a lost art in recent rap. In that regard he comes out of the creative process sounding like a completely different persona than the one who murdered the charts in 2006 with a syrupy voice that swerved into syllables, wild and reckless, cut and through.

He's more cautious here, enunciating every carefully chosen word, maintaining the tone of a guy who jettisons calmly with one leg over the other, hands on a table with his fingers crossed. It's what it would sound like if a witness had to rap his deposition in court.

"No Matter What" is supposed to be the opus where I believe where T.I. stands tall with his hands cuffed and his chin up, but "Ready for Whatever" does a lot more to explain the logic behind his drama.

In short, he is basically a rich, famous family man paranoid since his best friend was killed and no one was arrested afterward. "Mentally," he raps, "I was focused on not letting history repeat itself/ That's why heat was kept in the vicinity/ Officially, yes, I broke the law but not maliciously."

From my perspective that is wholly sincere, fully apologetic, barely remorseful, and a slightly crabby Second Amendment logic that boils down to "I understand what I did was wrong, but. . ." Although there are more than enough moments where TI tries too hard to remake his sound that was used on the signature hit "What You Know" which grows tiresome after a handful of tracks.

You still get the impression that as much as he says he hates the fame, his life is a living movie and he recognizes that. T.I. essentially blames his circumstances, his enemies, and his own paranoia all while still retaining that high impact sound, one that could very well make this one of the best produced albums of the year. TI's album isn't perfect but it does what it needs to while still maintaining a mainstream sound that is order in the court.

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