PREVIEW
What: T.I. with Sirreal and Paint the Town Red
When: Sunday and Monday, 8 p.m.
Where: Distrikt Nightclub, 919 Douglas St.
Tickets: Sold out
Rappers on a creative run don’t like to slow down, especially when there’s an incoming U.S. president providing a constant source of songwriting material.
Multiple Grammy Award-winner Clifford Harris Jr. — otherwise known as T.I. — released an EP of politically charged music in September, and followed up his six-song Us or Else mini album with the full-length Us or Else: Letter to the System in December.
He has coupled that with his biggest Canadian tour to date, one that gets underway tonight in Vancouver and includes sold-out dates Sunday and Monday in Victoria — the first of which sold out in less than 24 hours.
That’s what you call being on a hip-hop heater.
Some rappers choose to sit on vaults of music, much of which never sees the light of day due to fast-changing trends. But Atlanta-bred Harris believes his music should be released shortly after it is recorded. That the songs on both Us or Else recordings zero in on police brutality, race relations and the #BlackLivesMatter movement only reinforced the need to get the music out in stores before President-elect Donald Trump took office, 36-year-old Harris said.
“Us or Else is a moment in time, and I dedicated this moment and this time in my life to a particular cause and purpose,” Harris said Tuesday from his home in Atlanta. “This was more of a message that I wanted to convey. I wanted to make sure I spoke out on these issues that are affecting me and other Americans in a way that could bring about a certain level of change.”
The process of making two lightning-rod recordings was emotionally exhausting, so he will shift his priorities over the coming months into “T.I. album mode,” Harris said. “We’ll be right back in the clubs before you know it.”
T.I. music works well in the clubs; that’s his southern drawl you hear on Blurred Lines, the Robin Thicke smash from 2013 that became one of the best-selling singles of all time. He was a chart-busting performer long before that, however. Harris-penned singles have made him one of the most prominent rappers in North America, with a track record that include 55 appearances on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles charts via collaborations with Justin Timberlake, Kanye West, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Eminem.
He’s also an actor with nearly a dozen films on his resumé and title roles in two reality TV series, including T.I. & Tiny: The Family Hustle, about his marriage to Tameka (Tiny) Cottle (according to TMZ, the couple, raising six children, are trying to reconcile after Cottle filed for divorce in December). As with many rappers today, he’s also a businessman with various financial investments, including streaming service TIDAL (which he co-owns with Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Madonna and others) and several clubs in Atlanta. The King of the South moniker to which Harris lays claim is apt, indeed.
“I never try and fit myself into one way of doing things,” he said. “Diversity and being multi-faceted is something I’ve always been able to pride myself on.”
His recent forays into political waters added another element to the T.I. persona, one that has endured some knocks over the years. He was sentenced to 11 months in jail for violating his parole in 2010, a drug-related charge that eventually sent Harris to rehab (he told Barbara Walters during a 2011 interview that he “accepted in order to have a different result, you have to take a different approach” and has reportedly been sober ever since).
He found his social conscience on the Us or Else project. After meeting black leaders such as Harry Belafonte and Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan, Harris penned a series of open letters to Barack Obama, praising the outgoing U.S. president and promising him “your legacy will live on long after your presidency.”
Harris is keeping mum on Trump, but said he will speak out if he thinks it is necessary.
“It didn’t knock me off my game [when Trump won the election], but I immediately began to wrap my mind around it and see if there was any alternative action that could be taken. But, ultimately, you have to respond to it the way Hillary [Clinton] responded to it. I can’t fight any harder to oppose something that involves her more than she can. Seeing her accept it gave me more of a sense of acceptance.”
Harris has been doing rounds of press interviews to promote Us or Else, and has been asked about his celebrity. Harris refuses to discuss the topic or how it affects his family, telling an Atlanta radio host Monday morning: “It ain’t your business, man.”
He was less aggressive when discussing the topic with the Times Colonist.
“You don’t balance it,” Harris said of his personal and professional lives. “You just accept what you can and express your displeasure. It comes with the territory. You deal with as much as you can and the things you can’t deal with you express your displeasure and move on.”
