T.I. faces a long legal road ahead of him following his arrest for posession of controlled substances on September 1. The King of the South had to drop out of the Virgin Mobile FreeFest concert in Columbia, Maryland this past Saturday as a result of his legal issues. Replacing Tip at the concert was fellow ATLien Ludacris.
This marks the second high profile performance that T.I. has been forced to attend due his legal troubles. Earlier this month, the Grand Hustle emcee had to cancel a performance at Penn State University that was to be held the same night as the FreeFest concert.
Yet T.I.’s troubles seem to extend beyond the legal realm at this point in time. Producer Pharrell recently told MTV that Tip has been facing pressure from his label Atlantic to follow a more pop-oriented route for his upcoming album King Uncaged. Despite this, Skateboard P says that T.I.’s new album is sure to impress, saying that the 60 or so songs that he’s recorded have all been “…really incredible.”
“He’s got songs out there right now that are singles, but, you know, there are pressures in the world, certain things you can’t necessarily control. But his body of work … he’s got a crazy album,” said the Neptunes producer. “I saw, like, 60 records, and almost every record that he played me was really incredible. Then there was the more poppier side of things, where the label kinda puts the gun to your head ’cause they gotta pay their bills…please trust, T.I.’s album is incredible, and he’s an amazing talent, and it’s been a while since we got together…[but] we really went in for old times’ sake, so, it’s pretty crazy.” (MTV.com)
